The Abanda Caves are a cave complex in

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

, located in the upstream of

Fernan Vaz Lagoon Fernan Vaz Lagoon is a large lagoon on the Atlantic coast of Gabon. It is named for Fernão Vaz, the first European to reach it, and is known its wildlife and for the church at Mission Saint Anne, built in 1889 by Gustav Eiffel Alexandre Gus ...

. They were first mentioned by Dr. Marco Marti and Claude Werotte in the early 2000s, and fully explored during several caving expeditions by Oslisly, Testa, Sebag and Shirley. Abanda-cave-keyhole-gallery

There are two independent cave networks: the Dinguembou cave (350m) and the Mugumbi cave (400m). Access to the horizontal passages is possible through vertical shafts of about 7m deep. They host large colonies of

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

s (

Egyptian fruit bat The Egyptian fruit bat or Egyptian rousette (''Rousettus aegyptiacus'') is a species of megabat that is found in Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the Indian subcontinent. It is one of three ''Rousettus'' species with an African-Ma ...

Sundevall's roundleaf bat Sundevall's roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros caffer''), also called Sundevall's leaf-nosed bat, is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae. These bats are very similar in appearance to the closely related Noack's roundleaf bat, and the two hav ...

Giant roundleaf bat The giant roundleaf bat (''Macronycteris gigas'') is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae found in western tropical Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and caves. The species was formerly consid ...

) estimated to more than 100,000 individuals.

Picathartes The picathartes, rockfowl, or bald crows are a small genus of two passerine bird species forming the family Picathartidae found in the rain-forests of tropical west and central Africa. They have unfeathered heads, and feed on insects and inverteb ...

nests have been observed at the entrances of the caves. The Caves of Abanda are known to host an endemic population of orange-colored cave-dwelling

dwarf crocodile The dwarf crocodile (''Osteolaemus tetraspis''), also known as the African dwarf crocodile, broad-snouted crocodile (a name more often used for the Asian mugger crocodile) or bony crocodile, is an African crocodile that is also the smallest extan ...

s. They were described by

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

Matthew H. Shirley after the first scientific expedition in the caves in 2010. These crocodiles live in complete darkness, they feed mostly on bats and

cave crickets The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave wētā, cave crickets, camelback crickets, camel crickets, Hogan bugs, spider crickets (sometimes shorte ...

and swim in liquid

bat guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. ...

References

External links

* Freshwater ecoregions Caves of Gabon {{Gabon-geo-stub