Xonondo N°1

Michael Laumanns - 28/11/2015

At the S side of the doline a 3 m deep step leads into the first hall of the cave. To the right and the left stones are piled up by man. Despite the intensive bat guano exploitation in the years between 1930-1939 the ground is still covered by a thick guano layer. The quantity of guano is in no relation to the number of bats found in the cave - only two smaller colonies of perhaps 500 unspecified Rhinolophides. The cave consists actually of two big rooms interconnected via a spacious conduit. The entrance hall drops northward, up to a depth of 5 m. In the roof there are 2 small daylight openings in a marvellously developed cover channel, one of which was used to take out the guano. At the N side of the entrance hall a 5 x 5 m wide passage leads into the second room of the cave, which accommodates the bat colonies in ceiling pockets. Tree roots from the ceiling reach the bottom of the second room. The cave does not show any conglomerate filling. The typical fauna occurring in bat guano but no further animals could be observed. - An air temperature of 18.9°C was measured.