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 Cave Plants and Animals
 | Plant life, such as mosses and
ferns grow in wet places near the cave entrance. Inside in the dim light, the air is
chilly and damp. Small green algae may grow on the rocks in this zone. Because green
plants must use the sunlight to carry out the process of photosynthesis, there are no
plants deep inside the cave.
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| The cave’s animal life is divided into
three different groups which depend upon how much of their life is spent in the cave. The
three main groups are trogloxenes, troglophiles, and troglobites.
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| Trogloxenes
 | Cliff swallows and cave swallows build their nest of mud
along the rocky ledges of the cliff. |
| Pack rat homes are mounds of sticks and bark. Inside the
cave they nibble on animal bones and other bits of food. They mark their trails when
leaving in order to memorize the route back. |
| Bats are probably the most common known trogloxene or cave
guest. Most caves are the host area for thousands of bats. They use the caves during the
winter to stay warm and raise their young. They are found near the entrance. The Mexican
free-tailed bats may go up to an altitude of 3,000 meters and travel hundreds of miles to
feed on insects. Bats use a combination of spatial memory, personalized calls, and
personalized odors to identify their young from the millions of other young bats. Bats
migrate from the caves during the summer months. |
| Bears, raccoons, bobcats, and human cavers are several of
the other cave guests.
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| Troglophiles
| Salamanders are related to frogs and toads. Certain
salamanders live near the cave entrance. They see well and have colored skin. They like
the cave because it is moist and dark. One species is the "Eurycea longicauda",
which is common in the Kentucky caves. Some salamanders live outside of caves under rocks
or moist logs. |
| Isopods have many legs that look alike. |
| Amphipods have legs of different shapes. Isopods and
amphipods both eat bits of leaves, moss, dead worms and other small animals that drift in
the cave streams. Both of these animals belong to the crustacean family. They are usually
brownish in color and have eyes. |
| Flatworms crawl over damp areas in search for their food.
They leave a sticky trail which causes isopods and amphipods to become stuck and become
prey for the flatworm.. |
| Cave crickets are pale brown and have smaller eyes than
those crickets that are surface dwellers. Cave crickets love the warm, moist cave.
However, they may leave at night in search of food. The food they carry inside, their
dropping, and eggs feed other cave animals. Crickets are insects with six legs and an
exoskeleton. |
| Daddy longlegs exist in caves to feed on aphids. It does
not have venom or silk glands and is not a spider.
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| Troglobites
| Cave spiders have no dark pigment and six
‘obsolescent’ eyes that are nearly absent. Some members of this species are
eyeless. |
| Millipedes feed on bacteria and fungi found in the moist
cave soils. |
| The ground beetle has no eyes. It feeds on the eggs of the
cave crickets or the young crickets themselves. |
| Salamanders that live deep in the cave often look white
because they tend to lack pigment in their skin. They are smaller and slower than their
surface relatives. They are blind and catch their food by using sensing vibrations caused
by the movements of the tiny cave animals. Some breathe through feathery gills on their
necks. The Ozark blind salamander spends its youth as an aquatic larva with gills in the
springs around the entrance of a cave. It goes through a metamorphosis period to become an
adult and looses its gills. It retreats into the deeper, dark area of the cave and skin
grows over its dysfunctional eyes. |
| Cave fish are long and skinny. They use gliding strokes in
order to swim. They are able to swim a long distance in order to find food. Instead of
eyes they have nerves on their heads and along their sides that sense isopods, amphipods,
and other food moving around them. When their young feel movements, they remain still
because their parents are cannibalistic and will eat them. They have a pinkish, white
appearance. |
| Blind shrimp are found in some caves. |
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