AMBALAM CAVE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

What either consists of a wide mouthed, spacious cave with dark narrow chambers in unspecified rock (laterite?) adjacent to a riverbed at an elevation above 1000 m asl (note 1) or consists of an unused building in the forest interior (note 2) reports VANITHARANI (2005a: 7) as a habitat of the rare Salim Ali's fruit bat. Compare the caves near –>Injikuli in certain Pothigai Hills (not identified). ETYMOLOGY: The Malayalam -ambalam- signifies a Hindu temple. SITUATION: In the Agasthiyar Hill complex (VANITHARANI 2005a: 7) or, to be precice, in the southern part of the Western Ghats and somewhere at an unknown location in the Kalakad Mundantharai Tiger Reserve (note 3). CAVE LIFE: Salim Ali's bat (Chiroptera: Megachiroptera: Pteropodiae: Latidens salimalii Thonglongya 1972) is present at the Ambalam cave (VANITHARANI 2005a: 7).What either consists of a wide mouthed, spacious cave with dark narrow chambers in unspecified rock (laterite?) adjacent to a riverbed at an elevation above 1000 m asl (note 1) or consists of an unused building in the forest interior (note 2) reports VANITHARANI (2005a: 7) as a habitat of the rare Salim Ali's fruit bat. Compare the caves near –>Injikuli in certain Pothigai Hills (not identified). ETYMOLOGY: The Malayalam -ambalam- signifies a Hindu temple. SITUATION: In the Agasthiyar Hill complex (VANITHARANI 2005a: 7) or, to be precice, in the southern part of the Western Ghats and somewhere at an unknown location in the Kalakad Mundantharai Tiger Reserve (note 3). CAVE LIFE: Salim Ali's bat (Chiroptera: Megachiroptera: Pteropodiae: Latidens salimalii Thonglongya 1972) is present at the Ambalam cave (VANITHARANI 2005a: 7).