This week I am house sitting for a family at my church. Seeing that I am alone with their dog Lady during the evenings and nights, I brought over my family's dvd series Planet Earth. I am now watching about caves! So I thought that I could share some of my new-found knowledge :)
There is a cave called The Cave of Swallows, that's 400 meters deep, deep enough to engulf the empire state building o.O It is the deepest in the world
Caves are the least explored places on Earth.
In New Zealand there are cave glow worms that "fish" with a line of silk. They have a capsule at the base of their tail that lights up, and acts as a lure for prey (insects). These worms have solved a big challenge for cave dwellers, finding a constant source of food.
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When water from a river travels above ground, it absorbs the carbon dioxide, making it slightly acidic. So when it travels down underground through caves, it eats away at the lime stone. This creates caverns and winding mazes through the caves.
Deer cave in Borneo is so big a jumbo jet could fly through it. The size of the cave allows animals to gather there in large numbers. There are 3 million bats that live there! There they are protected form the elements, and protected from predators. there is a 100 meter high hill of bat poop in the cave. this is important for cockroaches that carpet the hill. they eat the continuous supply of bat droppings. There are also crabs in the cave.When the bats leave the cave they form a doughnut shaped formation to confuse birds of prey that lay in wait for them. This hunting ends when the light fades. By the morning, most of the bats will return, the hunting from the birds of prey don't make a big dent in the population.
Cave swiftlets birds make their nests on the walls of caves. They are shaped like cups, and are made of strands of the bird's saliva. The nests are also edible... people eat them. When a nest is removed, the birds immediately start making a new one.
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Stalactites hang from the ceiling of caves.
Stalagmites "grow" from the ground up.
when these two meet, they form a column.
These are all made of dissolved limestone.
Disorientated is a word.....I knew of disoriented... not tated... haha
Cave Angelfish only live in cave waterfalls. They can climb waterfalls
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The water that flows from Cueva de la Villa Luz is colored white because of all the sulfuric acid. Explorers that enter this cave must wear respirators and monitors. Poisonous gases rise to fatal levels so quickly, early warning systems are essential. There are fish in these waters, even though there is not a lot of oxygen in the water and lots of sulfuric acid. There are cave mollies. There is also Snottites, they are vast colonies of bacteria, that are capable of growing a centimeter a day, they drip sulfuric acid strong enough to burn skin. they extract energy from the hydrogen sulfite gas. They are known as Extremophiles, because they can survive in such extreme environments.
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*These photos were found just by googling what they are. I do not own them*
And there you go, some new information. I would highly recommend watching this series, and Blue Planet. Soo fun to watch.
