| FishBase | Complete | Literature | Reference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Species | Families | Species | Families | |||
| Marine | 571 | 126 | No | |||
| Freshwater | 498 | 58 | No | 300 | Kottelat, M. and T. Whitten, 1996 | |
| Total | 1057 | 164 | No | |||
| Conservation | Though the species that occur in Myanmar are treated in Indian publications, available information is superficial and fragmentary (Ref. 12217). The following information is to be sought: -Existence of conservation plans; -Current major threats to species; -Future potential threats to species; -Contact(s) for further information. Freshwater sites of exceptional biodiversity interest are Lake Indawngy and also Lake Inle, the latter with 9 endemic species and 3 endemic genera (Ref. 12217). |
| Geography and Climate |
Myanmar boasts a great variety of habitats ranging from tropical rain forests and coral reefs in the south to montane rain forests in the north where peaks at the eastern end of the Himalayas reach over 5,700 m. Mountain ranges form a continuous barrier along the western border with India and Bangladesh and extend southward parallel with the coast to the Irrawaddy delta. In the north-east, the border with China follows the high crest of the Irrawaddy-Salween divide, then bulges out eastward to enclose the ruggedly mountainous Shan Plateau forming the border with Laos and Thailand.
Between these eastern and western mountain barriers lie the fertile, heavily populated plains of the Irrawaddy, with its largest tributary, the Chindwin, joining from the north-west. Myanmar's other great river, the Salween, lies further east. It enters Myanmar from neighbouring Yunnan and flows south, cutting through the Shan Plateau in deep gorges, once heavily forested, before running into the Gulf of Martaban. In the south lies Tenasserim, which extends south to the Kra Isthmus as a long hilly arm.
Temperatures are very warm throughout the year. Most areas of the country have heavy monsoon rain in summer but are dry in winter. Ref. Talwar, P.K. and A.G. Jhingran, 1991 |
| Hydrography |
Myanmar is drained by three major rivers, Salween, Sittang and Irrawaddy, emptying into the Gulf of Bengal. Salween is the largest and longest: its upper reach in Tibet is inhabited by a High Asian fauna; its middle reach in Yunnan, China and its lower one in Myanmar have a Southern Asian fauna. The Sittang and Irrawaddy Rivers are entirely included in the South Asian region. Some tributaries of the Irrawaddy from the Kosi and Naga Hills are close to the Brahmaputra tributaries, and for a few species recorded from these hill areas it is not clear in which river basin they live. The small coastal rivers from the western slope of Peninsular Thailand and the part of Thailand included in the Salween basin share the Myanmar fish fauna.
The fauna of the three Myanmar rivers is closely related to that of India. Several Indo-Myanmar genera are better represented in Myanmar: @Acanthocobitis@ has five or six species confined to Myanmar and/or Bengal, a single one of which ranges throughout India. On the contrary, @Salmostoma@ (Cyprinidae) has nine Indian species as against one endemic to Myanmar and another shared by both countries.
Endemic fish genera are: @Sawbwa@ and @Inlecypris@ in Lake Inle, Salween drainage, @Danionella@ in the Irrawaddy basin, @Microrasbora@, @Neonemacheilus@, @Glaridoglanis@ and @Pseudexostoma@ in the Salween, Irrawaddy and probably also in the Sittang basins. The two former are said to include undescribed species also in the eastern tributaries of the Brahmaputra (Kottelat, 1989; Ref. 12041). Ref. Talwar, P.K. and A.G. Jhingran, 1991 |