FINAL VERSION FOR APPROVAL - Sdn Bhd - WWF Malaysia

Gunung Stong State Park Preliminary Management Plan
Photo 3.6: Streaked Spiderhunter
WWF-Malaysia/ Chew Yen Fook
3.5.3 Fishes
The only known study on fish diversity of GSSP is that by Abdullah Samat et al. (2005)
which was conducted during the 2003 scientific expedition. This preliminary study recorded
15 species belonging to 8 families, with cyprinids constituting 40% of the total number of
species. The number of species recorded is considered to be low due to limited sampling
effort and natural constraints such as lack of habitat and food supply in the headwaters or
streams at higher altitudes, compared with large rivers or streams of the lowland areas.
However, the authors predicted that more species could be added to the list if more tributaries
are surveyed. GSSP is believed to be a genebank of fishes in the Galas river system.
Depletion of fish downriver can be replenished by those of GSSP, but if those from GSSP is
depleted, there is no replenishment, as many species of fish cannot swim up against the
waterfalls and cascades flowing down the steep granite massif.
3.5.4 Insects and Other Invertebrates
Studies on insects and other invertebrates for GSSP were mainly conducted during the 2003
scientific expedition. Only certain groups of invertebrates were covered in these surveys and
these include ectoparasites (Mariana et al., 2005), aquatic insects (Che Salmah et al., 2005),
parasitic wasps (Idris et al., 2005), cicadas (Azman & Zaidi, 2005), ants, termites and beetles
(Ahmed Said Sajap et al., 2005), moths (Zaidi et al., 2005) and butterflies (Zaidi et al., 2005).
3.6 Plants
A preliminary checklist of plants was compiled based on the results of surveys conducted
during the 2003 scientific expedition, herbarium records from FRIM and results of a plant
survey commissioned by WWF-Malaysia under this project and conducted on 22-29
December 2006. This survey was conducted along the main trails within GSSP, from the
lowland areas up to the peak, as well as the limestone hills at Dabong. Although these
limestone hills, containing the Gua Ikan group of caves, are not part of GSSP proper, they
harbour an interesting assemblage of plants including those restricted to limestone (see
1.2.10.2) and rare and threatened plants.
A total of 618 taxa of seed plants and 80 of ferns and fern-allies are known from GSSP. At
least two plant species are endemic to GSSP, a bamboo Hultommochloa pubescens (Wong,
1995) and a fan palm Licuala stongensis (Saw, 1997).
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