2019 April Italy and Slovenia with Jan: Day 5 (Thursday) Postojna Jama
Jama means cave, btw.
At postojna the main attraction, really, is the human fish. When they were first discovered people thought they were baby dragons, and they are still nicknamed that by many. Others call them the human fish because they have hands and feet – complete with fingers and toes! They are sort of like a lizard and a newt mixed together. They are amphibious, but prefer to stay underwater. Their skin loses all pigment and their eyes cover over at the end of their eleven year adolescence. They can not tolerate any light, not even that of a flash from photo.
They - and mild variations of them,live, along with a number of other species which evolved in isolation in the various underground lakes and rivers.
We ride a train into the cave, then walk a good bit. It's huge and amazing, even just the part where tourists can go. It goes much further, but I forget how much further.
This long string of pictures includes some of the educational signs about the human fish, a few pics I took of the juvenile in the aquarium, one of 21 that have finally hatched in captivity. Some views from the train and then a lot of pictures from the well-lighted walk way.
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| Just to give a flavor of the cave! |
I forget what these are, sorry, but they live only in this cage.
Here are my pictures of the 'human fish' taken through the aquarium glass. He/she was hanging in the crevice between the rocky floor and the wall of the aquarium. Took me forever to find the little critter. I enhanced the white color with photoshop before posting these. Some reflection in the glass interferes with the close-ups I tried to get of the hands and feet.
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| On the move! |
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| Really tried to get a close up of the hands. Not that good. Let me google one. |
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| This is a juvenile - photo from an article about the birth of this first batch in captivity.http://home.bt.com/news/odd-news/rare-cave-dwelling-human-fish-lays-eggs-11364039511730 |
On to the train.
Moving on to the cave... here's a section I definitely plan to share with some of the women in my hiking group with whom I have an ongoing contest. I totally won.
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| The "concert hall" - yes, they have choirs and concerts here. |
The remainder here are photos of the cave without commentary.
