Postojna Cave
By Julianna Photopoulos
It was touch and go for a while. But the elusive pink aquatic salamanders that hatched inside Slovenia’s Postojna Cave about four months ago have survived the most difficult stage of their lives, reaching adolescence.
“This is the first time that the general public has the opportunity to see and follow the development of a creature that lives a really hidden life, in the darkness,” says team member Sašo Weldt at Postojna Cave in south-western Slovenia.
They were once only known from specimens washed out of caves by flooding and legend had it they were baby dragons – the name that stuck.
The olm (Proteus anguinus), or baby dragon, can live to be 100 years old and only lays eggs once or twice a decade. Little is known about their development and their small numbers and polluted underground habitat make them a vulnerable species.
Cave biologist Primož Gnezda in the Pivka river in postojna cave catching the olms’ lunch
Postojna Cave
So it was remarkable to see 64 eggs laid by a single individual and then placed in an aquarium within the cave earlier this year. Out of those, 22 eggs hatched, and all are still alive and developing better than expected. “These are the only baby dragons in the world, known to humanity,” says Weldt.
No one knew if they would hatch and survive the early stages of their __life as this has never been attempted before.
“After months of trepidation, worries and doubts, the most uncertain development period for newborn olms is over,” says the team at Postojna Cave. “The baby dragons are now 18 weeks old and are ready to enter a new stage of development.”
The olm is found in caves in the Dinaric Alps in the Western Balkans, and the blind amphibians are known locally as “human fish” because of their pinkish skin and aquatic lifestyle. They eat, sleep and breed entirely underwater.
Researchers feared that the newborns would not develop digestive systems and would thus be incapable of feeding on the worms they grew for them, once the yolk was gone. However, they are now about 4 to 4.5 centimetres long and keep growing.
“After more than 18 weeks, all of them are on the worm diet, including the one who gave us a real fright as he was very late in converting to worms – he only switched a few weeks ago,” report the biologists.
At first glance, the babies resemble the adults, but it will take two to three years for skin to cover their eyes and about a year and a half for the dark pigmentation to disappear and for them to turn pink.
Postojna Cave
Their legs are fully developed and they use them to move around their aquariums. They can also hunt, protect their territory, and occasionally have “brotherly quarrels” or fight for food with the other siblings.
The adolescence period lasts for about 15 years for a female and 11 years for a male, depending on the water temperature. The young olms will then turn into adults and reach sexual maturity, “but will still look like larvae their entire life, even if they reach 100 years.”
The olms in Postojna Cave have gained enormous popularity, which helps protect the waters in the karst. “In Slovenia, all drinking water comes from the karst area, so basically, if we pollute the underworld and the olms go extinct, we then have nothing to drink,” says Weldt. “It’s that simple.”
Read more: Meet the weird amphibian that rules the underworld
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