A long-lost rare crayfish comes back to life in an Alabama cave

Historically, Shelta Cave was one of the most diverse cave systems in the eastern United States. Long before Niemiller and other scientists appeared, beetles, salamanders, shrimps, crayfish, and other animals lived through the day in the dark. Often blind and lacking pigment, many cave-dwelling species outlive their surface-dwelling relatives, thanks to a slower metabolism – a common evolutionary adaptation to life underground. . For example, the red swamp crayfish, the star of misfortune for many species Boiled Louisiana Beef, can live up to five years in the swamps and ditches they call home. The crayfish in the cave south of Shelta, O. australis, live up to 22 yearsand it is thought that the crayfish in Shelta Cave have a similar lifespan.

A colony of gray bats also makes Shelta Cave their home. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, these adorable fluffy “microbats” deposit bird droppings throughout the cave — a valuable food source for many other cave-dwellers, including Shelta Cave crayfish. For centuries, the balanced ecosystem of bats, crayfish and other animals in Shelta Cave has remained undisturbed.

Then the businessman Henry M. Fuller also arrived. In 1888, Fuller acquired the cave, naming it after his daughter, after Scott Shaw, curator of the Shelta Caves Nature Reserve. A year later, Fuller built a wooden dance floor and installed some of the city’s first electric lights in the cave, creating a popular entertainment destination. When rainwater floods the underground lakes, Fuller even runs wooden boat tours for visitors. Nicknamed the cave “eighth wonder of the world”, Fuller ran Advertisement that boasted, “all the discoveries of the old world pale in comparison to the greatest spectacle on earth or under this earth.” “Yes, it was a big deal, but it didn’t last long,” Shaw said.

After 1896, Shelta changed hands several times, reportedly even becoming a popular figure during the Prohibition period. In 1967, the National Speleological Society (NSS), an organization that researches and protects caves, acquired the cave to preserve its unique ecosystem.