Visiting the Caves of JamaicaThere are several show-caves on the island easily accessible by tourists, most notably: Green Grotto Cave in St Ann, Two Sisters Cave in St Catherine, and Roaring River Cave in Westmoreland. There are also a number of shelter caves that require no special gear or expertise to visit. However, most caves in Jamaica are “wild”, and potentially dangerous for the inexperienced.

The threats involved with wild caves include falls into deep pits, drowning in river caves that can flood to the roof very quickly during heavy rains, and, in complex caves, getting irretrievably lost. At a minimum, visitors must have the appropriate equipment - specifically, headlamps that will not fail in the dark, climbing helmets, static ropes, and vertical gear.

Reaching the caves in the first place can be a challenge. For many, a four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary due to very rough roads. Then, once in the right area, you must know exactly where they are or the search can be fruitless - as little as ten meters of tropical bush will hide all but the largest entrances.

Nevertheless, wild caves can be visited safely as long as you know where to find them, know what you’re doing, and have the right equipment. The most important factor is to approach them with the respect they deserve. Caves are important components of Jamaica’s environment and hydrology, and archives for its cultural heritage, not playgrounds, and must be left as they were found for future generations. Tread lightly, and don’t touch the formations.

For more information on the caves of Jamaica, contact the JCO at: info@jamaicancaves.org or 876 397 7488

www.jamaicancaves.org

(Cover photo: The Asuno – JCO, March, 2009)

Jamaican Caves

n Caves Organisation

OverviewAs of 2011, there are over 1,000 known speleological sites in Jamaica. Most, or all, of the large systems have been at least partially explored, but smaller, unlisted caves are being added to the cave register on a regular basis.

Caves in Jamaica can be grouped into four general categories: Chamber caves, river caves, sinkholes, and flank margin caves. All were formed by the interaction of water with limestone, which covers two-thirds of the island, by way of mechanical and chemical erosion.

Of the 21 species of bats in Jamaica, 15 roost in caves. The most common is the large fruit eating bat, Artibeus jamaicensis, found in hundreds of caves, and the rarest is the Jamaican Flower Bat, Phyllonycteris aphylla, currently known to occur in only one cave, in Portland.

The largest bat-roosts are St Clair, Windsor, and Thatchfield, which have total numbers of over one hundred thousand. Other important bat caves include Marta Tick, Rota, Swansea, Volcano Hole, and Stony Hill.

The most common cave-adapted invertebrates in Jamaica are the cricket “Uvaroviella cavicola”, the spider “Gaucelmus cavernicola”, and the crab “Sesarma verleyi”. The rarest is the Onychophoran “Speleoperipatus spaeleus”, known from only two caves, Pedro and Swansea, with a total of five individuals found as of 2011.

Many caves, especially in coastal areas, were used by pre-Columbian natives, the Taino, as evidenced by pottery, pictograms, petroglyphs, and human remains. Notable examples are Kempshot, Belle Aire, and Jackson’s Bay.

The longest known cave is Gourie, explored by the Jamaican Caving Club (JCC) in 1972, at 3,500 meters. The deepest is Smokey Hole, at 195 meters, explored by the Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO) in 2006. The deepest underground river, 187 meters below the surface, is at Morgans Pond Hole. The largest chamber, 200 meters long, 100 meters wide, and 80 meters high, is at Dunn’s Hole.

ResearchSystematic exploration, mapping, and assessments of caves in Jamaica began with the Geological Survey Dept (GSD) in the 1940’s, and continued until the early 1960’s, primarily under RG McGrath. In the late 1950’s, a group from the University of the West Indies formed the University Caving Club (UCC), and then the Jamaican Caving Club (JCC), which remained active until the late 1990’s. Almost all of the island’s major caves were investigated during this combined period, and the discoveries of the GSD and JCC are the core of the Jamaican Cave Register.

In 2002, several cavers based in the Cockpit Country formed a new group, the Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO), to resume systematic research, with much of the early funding coming from The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Many of the former pricipals of the JCC came onboard, along with many new members. As of 2011, it remains very active, and collaborates often with government agencies such as the National Environment and Planning Agency, Ministry of Tourism, and Urban Development Corporation, as well as supplying frequent pro bono assistance to visiting, and Jamaican, researchers.

A short, incomplete, list of speleological research in Jamaica follows:Harold E Anthony (1919): First paleontological investigations.Leeds University Expedition (1963): Surveys of 24 caves and sinkholes in the area of Luidas Vale.Karst Hydrology Expidition (1965-66): First comprehensive studies of hydrological connectivity.Liverpool University Expedition (1977): Surveys of bat caves, and geomorphological studies.Stewart Peck (1968-74): First comprehensive studies of Jamaican cave invertebrates.Genoways, et al (1974-77-84-85): Fieldwork for the published work “Bats of Jamaica”.Parks in Peril Project, Nature Conservancy/JCO (2005): Assessment of the caves of the Cockpit Country.

ConservationThe caves of Jamaica, like other caves around the world, face threats to their physical structure, their biodiversity, and the paleoclimatic and fossil records that they preserve. The damage being done to these ancient, underground systems has one source and that is us.

The ways that humans cause damage to caves may be broadly grouped into two categories: external and internal.

External factors are activities such as removal of forest cover on, and upstream of, the caves. Deforestation on the land immediately above the system affects the temperature and humidity of the cave below, and when it is in a wider area, it also reduces foraging opportunities for bats. If it occurs upstream of hydrologically active systems, it can result in the filling up of a cave with silt. A good example of this is Farmyard Cave in Rock Spring - within a generation, it has become entirely choked and is no longer accessible.

Internal factors are visitation for the purposes of tourism and to extract bat guano for use as a fertilizer. Excessive visitation reduces bat colony numbers through repeated disturbance of a creature that lives on the metabolic edge (and is easily driven over that edge), and reduces invertebrate numbers by way of soil compaction. Sites that have rich deposits of guano supply habitat for many unique, cave-obligate invertebrates, with the guano acting as the base of the food chain - when it is removed by mining, so are all of the invertebrates. The deposits also contain a record of the climatalogical conditions of the island that extends back for thousands of years, laid down in a series of strata. Each contains records of the flora and fauna outside of the cave that the resident bats consumed, which were in turn set by the climatic conditions of the day.

To help preserve the caves of the island, the Ministry of Tourism, in association with the JCO, has established a set of guidelines on cave use, with priority given to conservation. The original JCO document on which it is based can be found at: www.jamaicancaves.org/guidelines.pdf.