Had Chao Mai National Park is located on the western shore of Thailand and has connecting area as follows:
North : adjacent to Khao Chong Chan in Amphoe Kan Tang, Klong Meng and Khlong Lam Yao in Mai Fad district, Amphoe Sikao, Trang.
South : adjacent to Malaka channel, Amphoe Sikaow, Trang.
East : adjacent to Khuan Din Dang, Khuan Medjun, Khuan Lu and Khuan Dang.
West : adjacent to Ko Ngai, Ko Mang, Malaka channel
Topography
Chaow Mai National Park consists of land area and sea area, located in the western side of southern part of Thailand. It covers land area about 93.64 sq.km and sea area of Andaman sea in Indian ocean about 137.21 sq.km. This national park is divided into 2 parts, the first part is the coast land including Muk island, Kra Dan island, Wan island, Cheaung island, Pring island and Meng island. This area consists of a steeply high limestone mountain where the northern part of the eastern side has Chong Chan mountain, Kwan Med Chune mountain, Kwan Dang mountain, etc. where are the source of many streams which joins together at Bang Sak canal and drains to the Trang river. In addition, this national park also consists of grass field, rainforest, mangrave forest, beach forest and sand beach whereas sea area has the deep sea widely covered with coral reef along the steeply high shoulder of mountain. This coral reef would be found in the Wan island, Cheaung island and Kra Dan island.
Climate
The Chao Mai National Park is influenced by the northeastern nonsoon wind and southwestern monsoon wind which induces it has a lot of rain all year round. There are two seasons here; the hot and raining season. The hot season starts from Jauary till April while the raining season starts from May till December. Average temperature of March and April is about 35.2 degrees celsius while the lowest temperature is about 21.2 degrees of celsius in January and February. Related humidity for all year round is 80 percent and average rainfall is about 2187.3 milimeters. The highest rainfall is in September which is about 158.8 milimeters.
Flora and Fauna
Vegetations
Able to classify into 5 groups as follows :
- Primary rainforest is the main type which covers the inner land area of Nam Rab mountain, Hot water pond and the eastern part of sand beach including Muk island. Most of found plants here are Dipterocarpus chartaceous, Burma reed, and low level woods as found in a general rainforest such as rattans, vines, etc.
- Mixed forest in limestone mountain area has been found in the western part of Muk island, Cheaung island, Wan island, Pring island, Bare Na mountain, Meng mountain, Yong Ling moutain and Chaow Mai mountain. These consists of plants which grow only in the specific area such as Dracaena lourieri, Phoenix paludosa, Euphorbia lacel Craib., Orchid, etc.
- Beach foresthas been found in the area of shore mountain of Muk island, Chaow Mai island and Meng island. The important plants here are Cassuarina equisetifolia , etc.
- Mangrove forest widely covers all area of bay of Muk island. The important plants are Rhizophora apiculata, Ceriops tagal, Xylocarpus granatum , etc. At the back side of this mangrove forest are the place of brackish water plants such as Nypa fruticans, Heritiera littoralis , etc.
- Aquatic plants society that could be found here are sea grass, seaweed and planton, especially in the sea area of Chaow Mai National Park is the place of the big sea grass.
Wild Animals
From survey, could be classified as follows :
- Mammal Animalswhich are going to be gone in the near future are sea cow, Capricornis sumatraensis, Presbytis melalophos, Muntiacus muntjak and Tragulus javanicus, while the pedatory animals that rarely found here are Felis bengalensis The easily found animals are Aonyx cinerea , etc.
- Birds, there are two types which are going to be vanished, the first is the black-necked stork and the second is the lesser adjutant. Also found the rare migrating sandpipers such as chinese egret, Nordmann's greenshank and chinese crested tern.
- Retiles such as yellow-headed temple terrapin, Indian python an reticulated python.
- Amphibians such as R. nigrovittata, Ornate Froglet, etc.
