Mentawai Islands
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The Mentawai Islands are a chain of islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Siberut Island (4030 sq km) is the largest island of the four Mentawai Islands. The other islands are Sipura, North Pagai (Pagai Utara) and South Pagai (Pagai Selatan). The islands lie approximately 150 km off the Sumatran coast, across the Mentawai Strait.
The Mentawai Islands are part of West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) province. Padang, the capital of the province, lies on the Sumatran mainland opposite Siberut.
The Mentawai Islands are home to the Mentawai Islands rain forests ecoregion, home to many endemic species, including Four endemic primates: the Mentawai or Kloss Gibbon (Hylobates klossii), Mentawai Macaque (Macaca pagensis), Mentawai leaf-monkey (Presbytis potenziani), and snub-nosed monkey (Simias concolor).
The Mentawai Islands have become a noted destination for surfing.
External links
- Anthropology of the Mentawai Islands (http://www.mentawai.org)
- Native Planet: The Mentawai (http://www.nativeplanet.org/indigenous/mentawai/)
- Mentawai Islands rain forests (World Wildlife Fund) (http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/im/im0127_full.html)de:Mentawai-Inseln