Tham Pha Thewada - CH0022
16.339736,101.541750
Location
The cave is well known and best reached directly from the Wildlife Sanctuary headquarters at Tung Kamang via an established waymarked trail. Just around the corner of Khao Thewada, where the main valley begins to head west-south-west, a small permanently flowing stream drops into a huge doline and enters Tham Pha Thewada.
Description
The stream sinks at the base of the cliff into the 30m wide entrance which descends steeply over rubble. A wide, generally low, passage meanders south-west then south to a constriction where the stream enters a low draughting duck inhabited by blind cave fish Poropuntius speleops (Tyson, 1991) (Cyprinidae). The only other known locality for this fish is in Tham Phu Khieo. The duck can be avoided by a climb up and crawl over the top of the canal section to reach the lip of a 4m deep vadose canyon. This can be followed along a series of twists and turns for about 350m towards the southwest. The draught comes from a roof tube which has not been explored.
Topographie
CHECKLEY, DAVE; HURD, SHELIA; CHAPMAN, PHIL; JONES, HOWARD; WILLIS, DICK (n.d. [1989])
Fauna
Poropuntius speleops (Roberts, 1991) (Chordata, Actinopterygii, Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae) (Roberts 1991)
Documents
[Topo] Tham Pha Thewada 28/04/2019Bibliography 18/06/2019
- BAECHLER, ALEX (2000) "Caving In Thailand" Wild Isle Issue No. 12 August-September 2000 pp17-18 CHECKLEY, DAVE; HURD, SHELIA; CHAPMAN, PHIL; JONES, HOWARD; WILLIS, DICK (n.d. [1989]) "Caves of the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, North-East Thailand" Unpublished report DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 124pp TRAJANO, ELEONORA; BOROWSKY, RICHARD (2003) "Behavior of cave fishes from Thailand (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae, Cyprinidae)" American Society of Icthyologists and Herpetologists 2003 Annual Meeting (Manaus, Brazil) Abstracts p61 ROBERTS, T.R. (1991) "Barbus speleops New Species, A Blind Cavefish from Tham Phu Khieo, Mekong Basin, Thailand" The Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society Vol. 39 No. 2 pp103-109
History
The cave was explored and surveyed by the British expedition in 1989. In 1999 live specimens Poropuntius speleops were collected by Borowsky and Vidthayanon which managed to make their way to a laboratory to be studied.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | Lam Chi Resurgence - CH0040 | ||
| 3.5 | Put Son Sink - CH0095 | ||
| 3.6 | Tham Put Son - CH0039 | 10 | 5 |
| 3.7 | Chi Dan Resurgence [Chee Dan Resuregence] [CH0038] | ||
| 4.2 | Tham Pha Sod [Broken Rock Cave] [CH0037] | 115 | 35 |
| 4.9 | Tham Pha Khao [Cave of the White Mountain] [CH0036] | 444 | 50 |
| 4.9 | Cave CH0046 [Grotte des Regrets ] [CH0046] | 50 | 20 |
| 5.3 | Tham Phu Khieo - CH0021 | 2866 | 130 |
| 5.4 | Tham Kon Dtai [Dead Man Cave] [CH0020] | 60 | 15 |