Blind dragon with rare egg cultivation in Slovenian caves

In a cave in Slovenia, millions of tourists are holding their breath watching the mother-of-the-serpent, exotic and rare amphibians nicknamed "young dragon", guarding dozens of eggs.

Stalks , a blind salamander species found on rivers flowing in the Balkan caves, have a lifespan of over 100 years but only reproduce once or twice every decade. A female female in the Postojna cave, Slovenia, has just laid 50-60 eggs and three of them show signs of development. Scientists are not sure how many eggs will hatch or how long it will take to hatch eggs.

The mother-in-law in the Postojna cave, Slovenia.(Photo: Iztok Medja).

"Right now, three eggs seem to be good candidates , " said Saso Weldt, a cave biologist who shared with the BBC. He and his colleagues took many photos of exposure in the dark cave to monitor the development of tiny fetuses.

"The female goose starts laying eggs on January 30. It still produces one or two fruits a day, and the eggs need to spend 120 days before hatching , " Weldt said.

According to Weldt, the hatching time of the eggs is only an uncertain estimate, based on the flock of goosebumps built in the 1950s in an underground laboratory in the Pyrenees, France. There, they live on warm water at a temperature of 11 degrees Celsius. In the Postojna cave, the temperature is cooler at 9 degrees Celsius, so the incubation time may last.

Goosebumps lay 50-60 eggs and are still spawning every day.(Photo: Iztok Medja).

This is a unique opportunity to observe the reproduction of the cave where this species has lived for millions of years. " What is special is that there is not much data related to the reproductive process of this group of animals," said Dusan Jelic, a scientist who specializes in wild goosebumps in Croatia. "In the wild, we have never found eggs or larvae. They can lie in some places inside the cave system."

The only vertebrate that lives in caves in Europe, the goose is very well adapted to their underground habitats: limestone caves, created when water erodes cliffs. tan. "In 200 million years, their environment has not changed," BBC quoted Dr. Jelic as saying.

However, this animal and especially its eggs are very vulnerable to changes in water quality and temperature. In 2013, a spawn in the Postojna cave also spawned but no fruit hatched and many fruits were eaten by other gossips.

This time, the Postojna cave aquarium managers paid more attention. All other goosebumps except the mother are removed and the aquarium is shielded to protect the eggs from the light. The staff also pumped more oxygen into the tank. Nearby infrared camera cameras allow employees and visitors to keep track of what's going on inside.

The eggs need at least 4 months to hatch.(Photo: Iztok Medja).

Occasionally, the mother's goose swooped over to check the number of eggs, spawn or scare away small crustaceans that hunger could not see, but still discovered by using an electromagnetic sensitive organ inside the nose. The animal also has a strong sense of smell, which helps it follow the eggs.

"The eggs smell, so the mother can recognize which fruits are normal and which ones are broken. Because the food in the cave is very scarce, she eats the fruits that cannot be conceived," Weldt explained.

The snake is a symbolic animal of Slovenia . When the floods swept them out of the caves hundreds of years ago, they were called "young dragons". In addition, this animal is also known as "human fish" due to the skin color similar to humans.