Olm
ABOUT
Olms, also known as Proteus or "human fish," are a type of salamander that lives its entire life in dark underwater caves. They are endemic to the karsts of Central and Southeastern Europe (the Dinaric Alps in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, and Slovenia, with introduced populations in France and Germany).
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Length: 20–30 cm (8–12 in)
Weight: 15–20 grams (0.53–0.7 oz.)
Life Span: 68–100 years
Status: Vulnerable
Distribution: Central and Southeastern Europe
Population size: at least 400 individuals
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DESCRIPTION
Due to their habitat, they have evolved to not have vision and use other highly developed senses like smell, hearing, and even the ability to detect electricity and magnetic fields. In addition, because they inhabit caves, they do not have pigment on their skin and therefore appear white. Like axolotls, they stay in larval shape their whole lives, and that’s why they still have small, underdeveloped lungs and use their pink external gills.
Sexes are hardly distinguished from each other, but males are smaller with brighter bodies and bigger cloacas.
Olms can live without eating for around 6–10 years. They are also the longest-living amphibians known to man and can live up to 100 years.
HABITAT AND FAMILY LIFE
They live in cave waters around the Adriatic Sea and the Dinaric alps, most often found at the entrances of limestone caves. Olms require water rich in oxygen that is clear with a slightly acidic pH and temperatures of around 5 and 15 °C (41–59 °F). Once a male has reached adulthood after 12–16 years, he chooses a territory he likes and starts defending it, waiting for a female to pass by so that they can mate. They usually only breed once every 12.5 years, and after that, the female chooses a territory at a distance from the male’s (males mate with multiple females, while a mate only with one male). Later, after establishing herself, she fertilizes the eggs and carries them for 2 to 3 days. After that, she searches for rocks to lay them under and does it for as long as 25 days. They usually lay around 35–70 eggs but can give birth to fewer already-hatched tadpoles if the water is too cold. Baby olms look exactly like their parents, but just in a smaller form, and both eat anything they can catch, but it’s mainly insects.
CONSERVATION
Olms don’t have a natural predator except if a fish gets lost or another Olm eats them, and scientists still haven’t researched them enough in their natural habitat, so we can’t be sure about their conservation status. Although this is the case, they are very vulnerable to human intervention, in particular pollution, because they require such specific living conditions as clean water with a lot of oxygen and a slightly acidic pH. Even the smallest pollution can cause harm to them. Olms are estimated to be around 400 in the wild, but that is not sure because of the extreme difficulty of studying and researching them in the deep, dark caves.
So that was it! – Now you know more about the Olm. I hope you learned a lot regarding the spectacular wildlife on our planet with The Wildlife Echo!
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