In Borneo I observed that most species of bat which commonly inhabit the caves of Gunung Buda (Sarawak, Malaysia), including some cave-roosting fruit bats, tend to roost near the entrances. There, it is the swiftlets (birds) which travel kms into the caves. They echolocate using clicks. They nest on cave walls by building nests with their specialized sticky saliva, and sometimes moss. We also observed seriously heavily traveled small rodent trails well into the dark zone there. Their little rodent bones practically formed drifts in some areas. There are some major snake trails too. The cave racer snakes also travel well into the dark zone and hang out at constrictions in the passage to catch the swiftlets commuting in and out of the caves. It's pretty impressive.
Back to mammals- British cavers exploring in nearby Mulu National Park had reported that their snacks had been chewed into by some mysterious mammal some kms underground. We set about trying to trap whatever previously-unknown troglobitic slow loris might be present with a pretty good sized rat trap. But it turned out that the porcupine we later saw scurrying away was far too big for our trap. We saw some really cute brown rats with white bellies in another cave. They were hanging out in the dark zone too, but pretty close to entrances. They seemed unafraid of us and just went about their rat business as long as they were underground and blinded by our lights. Another time I was overnighting alone just about 200' into the dark zone of a small California cave. I made fast friends with a very docile and friendly little mouse who would let me pet him. We met when he woke me up chewing my Hershey's with Almonds by my ear. I was happy to share. -Vivian > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
