Tham Tukatan [Cricket Cave] [Tham Taktan] [Tham Tak Kah Tan] [CM0084]
18.780000,98.820000
Location
From the H1269 follow the signs and turn off towards the west. Follow the surfaced road to Ban Mong Pang Kwang. Turn left (west) up a concrete road to reach the top of the mountain. The concrete road becomes a dirt farm track which skirts a large blind valley (with limestone cliff) on the right to end at the top of a steep slope down (not recommended in the wet). The track ends at a grassy area. Walk down the waterfall and then follow the good path round to the right (north) and ascend a few metres to the entrance.
Description
The 4 m high entrance leads to large, dry chambers with old paintings. After 200 m the dry mud floor becomes covered in boulders and the scramble up leads to further bat chambers. Here the air is very stuffy and still. At the start of this boulder-floored section a climb up on the left leads to a passage that ascends steeply back over the entrance passage and has some large formations. Leading off from the north (left hand) wall of the bat chambers is a large passage/chamber which ascends and then turns right. This passage is estimated to be 100 m long, about 50 m wide in the middle and has a large bat colony. Care has to be taken here as the passage is mud floored with holes down into the bat chambers below. Back in the first part of the cave there is a hole in the floor where water can be heard. However, this occasionally has dangerously high CO2 levels. One website claims the cave is 7 km long - perhaps they are confusing the cave with Tham Chiang Dao?
Topographie
JARLAN, PHILIPPE; CARON-JARLAN, VIOLAINE, BELUCHE, ALEXANDRA; BELUCHE, FRANCOIS (2010) - sketch survey ZEITOUN, VAL+RY; FORESTIER, HUBERT; NAKBUNLANG, SUPAPORN (2008) - incomplete
Fauna
Phlebotomus (Euphlebotomus) mascomai Muller, Depaquit et Leger, 2007 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Diptera, Psychodidae) (Kr³ger et al. 2017) Phlebotomus (Idiophlebotomus) longiforceps (Wang, Ku et Yuan, 1974) (Arthropoda, Insecta, Diptera, Psychodidae) (Kr³ger et al. 2017) Sergentomyia anodontis Quate and Fairchild, 1961 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Diptera, Psychodidae) (Kr³ger et al. 2017)
Documents
Bibliography 26/06/2019- +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 +JARLAN, PHILIPPE; CARON-JARLAN, VIOLAINE, BELUCHE, ALEXANDRA; BELUCHE, FRANCOIS (2010) "Expedition NANTHAI 2008" SociÚtÚ SpÚlÚologique de l' AriÞge-Pays d'Olmes 55pp ***Kr³ger, Andreas; Oerther, Sandra Isabell; Schmidt-Chanasit, Jonas; L³hken, Renke (2017) "Phlebotomine sand flies in Thailand: More caves reveal more species" poster at Entomology 2017, Entomological Society of America, 5-8 November 2017, Denver +NATIONAL PARK OFFICE (2006) "National Parks in Thailand" National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok 280pp ZEITOUN, VAL+RY; FORESTIER, HUBERT; NAKBUNLANG, SUPAPORN (2008) "PrÚhistoires au sud du Triangle d'Or" IRD Editions, Paris ISBN 97-2-7099-1642-4 252pp
History
John Spies visited the cave sometime before 1995 and reported a length of 400 m. The cave was surveyed by the French archaeological expedition sometime between 2001 and 2008. 2008-08-31 M. Ellis, S. Prommaviang 2010-03-09 M. Ellis, P. Collett 2013-04 T. Wyderka, A. Avila explored the 100 m side passage off the main bat chambers. 2019-02-19 J. Kelly 2019-03-16 M. Ellis, J. Kelly, P. James, Y. Sopha, Chay
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 | Cave CM0085 | 50 | 0 |
| 0.5 | Cave CM0310 | 5 | 0 |
| 2.4 | Tham Khang Khao [Bat Cave] [CM0307] | ||
| 3.1 | Tham Pa Len - CM0196 | ||
| 9.8 | Phra That Doi Tham - CM0069 | ||
| 10.6 | Tham Pha Daeng - CM0164 | ||
| 14.3 | Tham Luang Mae Sap 4 [CM0312] | 15 | 0 |
| 14.4 | Tham Luang Mae Sap 3 [CM03011] | 30 | 0 |
| 14.4 | Tham Luang Mae Sap 2 [CM0146] | 50 | 10 |