Showcasing the wonders of Endau-Rompin park

The entrance to Endau-Rompin National Park.

JOHOR BARU: With just six months to go before Visit Johor Year 2020, Tourism Johor is gearing up to promote some of its best-known attractions.

Tourism Johor director Zihan Ismail said that one of the locations being highlighted for next year is Endau-Rompin National Park, which is under the administration of the Johor National Parks.

“Endau-Rompin Johor National Park was established in 1993 with 48,905 ha of land, making it the largest protected area in the southern peninsula of Malaysia.

“It is also the oldest rainforest area in northeastern Johor and contains treasured biodiversity and habitat that is very important, including the Malayan tiger and tapir, as well as Asian elephants,” she said when contacted.

She added that there are two entry points to the park on the Johor side, one through Peta which is located along the eastern border of the Mersing area, and the other at Kampung Selai at the southwest border of Segamat.

Zihan added that although only certain areas of the park are open to visitors, they still require special permits from the Wildlife Department to visit, so as to safeguard its ecological treasures.

“The parks have two natural food sources for tigers, namely the sambar deer and barking deer. It’s also the only known population for bearded pig – a species of wild boar that is less aggressive compared with the Eurasian wild pig.

“The majority of the monkeys in the park are the long-tailed macaques dan pig-tailed macaques and two species of langur, namely dusky langur and banded langur,” she added.

Zihan said the park was also home for endangered animals such as the Sunda pangolin, white-handed gibbon and Sunda slow loris.

“The parks had been recognised as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by BirdLife International in 2003 where it has at least 10 endangered bird species, including the helmeted hornbill and straw-headed bulbul,” she added.

Endau-Rompin National Park, Malaysia’s second largest national park after Taman Negara, is a lowland dipterocarp rainforest with an abundance of endemic plants and vibrant wildlife.

The park is so large that it actually straddles two states, Johor and Pahang, with approximately 26km of trails.

It is also home to the Malayan sun bear, 230 species of birds, Sumatran rhinoceros, 43 species of fishes, 26 species of frogs, 14 species of snakes, and many more.

For more information, head to Endau-Rompin National Parks office at Bekok (Selai) or at Kahang (Peta) or call 013-7440952 (Selai office) and 013-744 0951 (Peta office).

Johor National Parks also administers the Sultan Iskandar Marine Park, Pulau Kukup, Tanjung Piai National Park, and Gunung Ledang.

-thestar online.
http://tourism.johor.my/