Xe Pian National Park is a national park in Champasak and

Attapeu Attapeu (, ), also written as Attopu or Attapu, is a town in southern Laos, serving as the capital of Attapeu province. Its official name is Muang Samakhi Xay. It is the southernmost of provincial capitals in Laos. Most of the inhabitants are La ...

provinces in southern

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. This forested, hilly park is home to significant wetlands and a great diversity of animal, bird and fish species. It is an

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

destination.

Geography

Xe Pian National Park is about south of

Pakse Pakse (or ''Pakxe''; French: ''Paksé''; Laotian: ປາກເຊ 'mouth of the river') is the capital and most populous city of the southern Laotian province of Champasak. Located at the confluence of the Xe Don and Mekong Rivers, the distri ...

in Pathoumphone and Khong districts of Champasak and Sanamxay District of Attapeu. A large part of the park's boundary follows the border with Cambodia. The park's decreed area is but there have been recent higher estimates of size. Elevations range from to the park's highest point at . Three significant rivers have portions in the park: Xe Pian, which joins the Xe Kong, and Xe Khampho.

Flora and fauna

The park's main forest type is mixed evergreen covering about 80% of its area. Deciduous forest constitutes a further 17% of the park. Pangolin borneo

Threatened animal species include

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

, yellow-cheeked gibbon,

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...

dhole The dhole ( ; ''Cuon alpinus'') is a canid native to South, East and Southeast Asia. It is anatomically distinguished from members of the genus ''Canis'' in several aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third ...

Asian black bear The Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It is distributed from southeast ...

sun bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a bear species in the Family (biology), family Ursidae found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'' and the smallest bear species, standing nearly ...

banteng The banteng (''Bos javanicus''; ), also known as tembadau, is a species of wild Bovinae, bovine found in Southeast Asia. The head-and-body length is between . Wild banteng are typically larger and heavier than their Bali cattle, domesticated ...

and the critically endangered

Sunda pangolin The Sunda pangolin (''Manis javanica''), also known as the Malayan or Javan pangolin, is a species of pangolin. It is a member of the Manidae family. Its English name comes from the Malay name "pëngulin", which means "roller". It is native to S ...

. Reptiles include

Siamese crocodile The Siamese crocodile (''Crocodylus siamensis'') is a medium-sized freshwater crocodile native to Indonesia (Borneo and possibly Java), Brunei, East Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The species is critically endangered and ...

and

Cantor's giant softshell turtle The Asian giant softshell turtle (''Pelochelys cantorii)'', also known commonly as Cantor's giant softshell turtle and the frog-faced softshell turtle, is a species of freshwater turtle in the family Trionychidae. The species is native to South ...

, both endangered. Masked Finfoot

A part of the Xe Khampho–Xe Pian Important Bird Area (IBA) overlaps the park. of the IBA's approximate area of lies in Xe Pian. Bird species of important conservation status in the common IBA and park area include

white-winged duck The white-winged duck or white-winged wood duck (''Asarcornis scutulata'') is a large species of duck, formerly placed in the genus ''Cairina'' with the Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') and allied with the dabbling ducks. However, mtDNA cyto ...

masked finfoot The masked finfoot or Asian finfoot (''Heliopais personatus'') is a highly endangered aquatic bird that was formerly distributed throughout the fresh and brackish wetlands of the eastern Indian subcontinent, Indochina, Malaysia and Indonesia. Lik ...

and

white-rumped vulture The white-rumped vulture (''Gyps bengalensis'') is an Old World vulture native to South and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000, as the population severely declined. White-rumped vultures di ...

. Elsewhere in the park important species include

giant ibis The giant ibis (''Pseudibis gigantea'') is a wading bird of the ibis family, Threskiornithidae. It is confined to northern Cambodia, with a few birds surviving in extreme southern Laos and a recent sighting in Yok Đôn National Park, Vietnam. I ...

sarus crane The sarus crane (''Antigone antigone'') is a large nonmigratory Crane (bird), crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to , they are a c ...

red-headed vulture The red-headed vulture (''Sarcogyps calvus''), also known as the Asian king vulture, Indian black vulture or Pondicherry vulture, is an Old World vulture mainly found in the Indian subcontinent, with small disjunct populations in some parts of So ...

woolly-necked stork The woolly-necked stork has been split into two species: * Asian woolly-necked stork, ''Ciconia episcopus'' * African woolly-necked stork, ''Ciconia microscelis'' {{Short pages monitor