“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,” the park said.
The post explained how some incidental impacts can be “difficult or impossible” to prevent, such as the fact that people walk among the caves on a regular basis, leaving a fine trail of lint — but other impacts are “completely avoidable,” such as dropping a bag of snacks.
“To the owner of the snack bag, the impact is likely incidental. But to the ecosystem of the cave it had a huge impact,” read the post.
“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 park’s website states that food and drinks are prohibited in the cavern except for plain water. NPS
Park rangers reportedly spent 20 minutes removing the foreign debris and molds from the surfaces of the cave, explaining that while some members of the ecosystem that came from the Cheetos are cave-dwellers, “many of the microbial life and molds are not.”
“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 concluded.
The park’s website states that food and drinks are prohibited in the cavern except for plain water as it attracts animals into cavern areas “not usually frequented by wildlife.”
Park rangers reportedly spent 20 minutes removing the foreign debris and molds from the surfaces of the cave. GABY VELASQUEZ/ EL PASO TIMES / USA TODAY NETWORK
“Contrary to popular belief, the cave is NOT a big trash can,” the post said. “Even still, rangers walk the trails at the end of every day and pick up waste left behind.”
For the latest in lifestyle, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/lifestyle/
I saw the caverns last summer. I hate people... they never want to follow rules. they state clearly no bright lights, no loud noises, don't touch the walls. I saw plenty of people doing all three of these in plenty and then this idiot drops cheetos. humans suck.
John Sheldon
26m ago
close the cave to all humans have the "" scientist's"" use robots or drone to study humans are bad and don't belong in any natural environment restrict them to concrete only all of them , bad humans
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.