Leave only footprints. A recent incident involving a packet of chips has put this innocuous travel quote back into focus. A discarded packet of Cheetos is posing a significant threat to bats and insects in cave systems of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. These seemingly innocuous items are causing a domino effect that could have dire consequences for the delicate ecosystems within these underground habitats.
Recently, a tourist left behind a packet of Cheetos, which eventually attracted a variety of insects, according to the national park authorities. In a Facebook post, park officials explained how this seemingly ordinary corn snack became a feast for microorganisms. '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 post read.
According to the post, Rangers had to spend twenty minutes removing the foreign detritus and moulds from the cave surfaces. “Some members of this fleeting ecosystem are cave-dwellers, but many of the microbial life and molds are not. 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. Great or small we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it,” the post by the national park read.
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The problem of waste at tourist sites is becoming increasingly serious. As many travel destinations continue to deal with overtourism, the number of visitors to such caves is also increasing. This, in turn, is leading to a rise in the amount of litter, including food wrappers, that is being left behind.