Objective
Students will learn to:
• Describe the different categories of cavern life and identify the types of animals for each category
• Explain how the category of an animal's cavern use is directly related to where it lives in a cavern.
Background Information
Many species of animals live in caverns or use them for shelter. There are three categories of cavern inhabitants based on the level of their use of a cavern:
Trogloxenes (derived from the Greek words – troglos meaning cavern and xenos meaning guest)
These are animals who normally live outside, but use a cavern for temporary shelter.
Troglophiles (derived from the Greek words – troglos meaning cavern and phileo meaning love)
These are animals that can and often do live outside in a similar environment (cool, dark and moist) but can also live in a cavern if they choose. Some of these animals may choose to spend their whole life inside a cavern.
Troglobites (derived from the Greek words – troglos meaning cavern and bios meaning life)
These are animals that live exclusively in the dark zone of caverns. These animals evolved through the millennia from troglophiles who first entered the cavern and either chose to stay or were trapped and managed to adapt. Through evolution these troglophiles changed their physical attributes to better adapt to the environment. These are the animals which have little or no skin pigment, no eyes and which exhibit other special adaptations.
Zonation is the term used to identify which animals live in which zone.
