The Meratus Mountains is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n province of

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the second most populous province on the island of Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of the island of Borneo after West Kalimantan. The provincial capital was Banjar ...

; it is located on

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

island. The mountains run in a north-south arc that divides South Kalimantan province into two almost equal parts. Its highest peak is Mount Besar at 1,901 metres elevation.Irham, Mohammad, Haryoko, Tri, Shakya, Subir B., Mitchell, Simon L., Burner, Ryan C., Bocos, Carlos, Eaton, James A., Rheindt, Frank E., Suparno, Suparno, Sheldon, Frederick H., Prawiradilaga, Dewi M. Description of two new bird species from the Meratus Mountains of southeast Borneo, Indonesia. ''Journal of Ornithology'', 21937192, Apr 2022, Vol. 163, Issue 2 The mountains are inhabited by the "semi-nomadic"

Meratus Dayak The Meratus or Meratus Dayak is an ethnic group that inhabits the Meratus Mountains of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Banjar Kuala people would refer the Meratus people as Urang Baiju or Dayak Baiju, as they consider them to be the same as ...

people.

Flora and fauna

The mountains are surrounded at lower elevations by heavily disturbed lowland rain forest and lands converted to agriculture. The higher elevations are home to submontane and montane forests, which are separated from the main mass of Borneo's montane rain forests in the centre and north of the island by approximately 300 km of lowland forest. The submontane and montane forests cover an area of approximately 2,460 km². Endemic plants include ''

Gaultheria kalimantanensis ''Gaultheria'' is a genus of about 283 species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. The name commemorates Jean François Gaultier of Quebec, an honour bestowed by the Scandinavian Pehr Kalm in 1748 and taken up by Carl Linnaeus in his '. These pla ...

'' (Ericaceae) and the carnivorous pitcher plant '' Nepenthes boschiana''. The mountains' relative isolation from Borneo's other highlands has allowed for the evolution of several endemic species, including the birds

Meratus blue flycatcher The Meratus blue flycatcher (''Cyornis kadayangensis'') is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. The species was described in 2021 by the Indonesian ornithologist Mohammed Irham and his colleagues, based on genetic, ...

(''Cyornis kadayangensis'') and

Meratus white-eye The Meratus white-eye (''Zosterops meratusensis'') is a species of bird in the white-eye Family (biology), family, Zosteropidae. The species was Species description, described in 2021 by the Indonesian ornithologist Mohammed Irham and his colleag ...

(''Zosterops meratusensis''). The area has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

Conservation

In the 1990s the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation reintroduced 350

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s into the protected Meratus and Sungai Wain forests. Due to extensive deforestation the ecosystem of the mountains, including many flora and fauna species are endangered. Traditional Dayak villages are also disappearing.Borneo Orang Utan Help Project
(German)

External links

Landscape of the Gunung Besar Range
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References

Mountain ranges of Indonesia Landforms of South Kalimantan Landforms of Kalimantan Important Bird Areas of Kalimantan {{SKalimantan-geo-stub