Dropped Cheetos Could Have Triggered Ecosystem Chaos in Largest US Cave Chamber
15th September 2024
After an absent-minded guest left a bag of Cheetos deep within Carlsbad Caverns, the National Park Service (NPS) responded with a stern warning. Unsightly trash and plastic pollution aren’t the only issues, they cautioned; the garbage could have had a significant impact on the wider ecosystem of the ancient cave system.
The bag of food was dropped in Carlsbad Caverns’ so-called Big Room, the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America, which takes around an hour of walking underground to reach.
Left to fester in the pits of the humid cave, the full bag of cheesy snacks sent a tiny shockwave through the local ecosystem.
“The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders, and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues,” the NPS said in a Facebook post.
“At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world-changing,” they explained.