Protecting cave species in Eastern Herzegovina

20 July 2010, Plymouth (UK). The Devon Karst Research Society has recently completed the first phase of its Proteus Project which aims to protect a number of endemic species in the Dinaric Karst region of Eastern Herzegovina, in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The karst is a unique landscape, formed by the underground weathering of limestone rocks. In the classical Dinaric Karst of Eastern Herzegovina, karst ecosystems are often the residence of a variety of rare and highly endangered hypogean or cave fauna, endemic only to this region.

The Proteus Project focuses not only on the identification and protection of the habitats of such species as the cave salamander Proteus anguinus (Laur 1786), the bivalve clam Congeria kusceri (Bole), the beautiful aquatic cave tubeworm Marifugia cavatica (Absolon & Hrabé,1930), the elegant cave shrimp Speleocaris pretneri (Matjašič, 1956) and many others, but also on the underground ecosystems containing those species within the Dinaric Karst of Eastern Herzegovina.

The project covers the whole of the Trebišnjica River Basin which is mostly located in Bosnian Eastern Herzegovina, and partly in Montenegrin Eastern Herzegovina and Croatian (Dalmatian) Eastern Herzegovina.

The Devon Karst Research Society is carrying out bio-inventories and population counts of hypogean species and working with local inhabitants which has already led to many achievements in the restoration of hypogean or cave habitat locations.

The Society also undertakes a small number of primary research sub-projects to better understand what constitutes the difference between a fully viable aquatic hypogean habitat versus a degraded hypogean habitat that is not viable for supporting breeding colonies of the endemic species.

As the ultimate protection of these species can only be obtained through recognition by the relevant state authorities, the Devon Karst Research Society is currently working with the RS-BiH – Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage – a Department of the RS-BiH Ministry of Education and Culture. This collaboration hopefully will result in the enforcement of legal State Protection of viable hypogean ecosytems.

In 2010, a publication focusing on one particular Hypogean part-Ecosystem will be produced. It will be the first issue of the new technical Monograph Series published by the Devon Karst Research Society jointly with its partner organization in Trebinje, RS-BiH, Speleološko društvo Zelena Brda and its associated Hungarian group Caudata Hungarian Cave Research from Budapest. The aim of the publication is to further highlight the plight of the rapidly disappearing hypogean biodiversity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to support the Society’s science program in the country.

(Photo by Gergely Balázs and Pataki Róbert, September 2009: An adult Proteus anguinus (Laur. 1768) in its natural underwater habitat in RS-BiH Eastern Herzegovina)

• Read more about Proteus on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™
• The Devon Karst Research Society on Countdown 2010  website