Subterranean Fishes of the World

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2020

Observations in Speleology

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Popular descriptions of Proteus anguinus anguinus (Laur,1768), or the “White Proteus” generally include the descriptive terms “obligate stygobiont” and “cave amphibian”; indeed, in many English Language texts, this remarkable species is referred to as the European Cave Salamander. Evidence certainly suggests that it prefers the subterranean aquatic habitat rather than the cave terrestrial option, which has been used infrequently by the animal in certain locations if necessary, where and when it is available. However, in the published literature, little consideration has been given to the fact that as an amphibian, this species has a pair of internal lungs or “lung sacs” and that under certain natural conditions, this predominantly aquatic animal can both move out of the aquatic medium into the adjacent cave terrestrial environment (cf. definition of amphibian) and that it can also position itself to be able to use its air-breathing system whilst remaining partly submerged in a very shallow aquatic habitat, or by periodically swimming up to the surface of deep water and firstly expelling its used air before rapidly inhaling fresh atmospheric air before diving again. This latter is often referred to as air-gulping. This Paper describes and illustrates the latter two scenarios, using as an example, specific reports on repeated observations of this animal behaviour within one particular underground habitat location in Bosnia and Hercegovina. In doing so, it is not our intention to describe the anatomy of the respiratory system, which is adequately presented in detail elsewhere in the published literature. In maintaining one of the operational principles of the “PROTEUS PROJECT” in regard to the protection of this endangered species against the ravages of specimen collectors, neither the name of the location where the observations were made, nor details of its exact geographical position are provided in the Paper.

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