A dropped snack bag doesn't sound like an ecological emergency. But in the damp, sealed-off world of Carlsbad Caverns, it was enough to spark a mold outbreak and a temporary food web. Found During an End-of-Day Sweep A ranger spotted the bright orange bag off the trail during one of the regular end-of-day checks of the Big Room, the largest single cave chamber by volume … [Read more...] about One Bag of Cheetos, One Cave, 20 Minutes With a Toothbrush — How a Snack Disrupted Carlsbad Caverns
cave ecosystem
A Cheetos Crisis: How a Simple Snack Bag Could Have Devastated a Cave Ecosystem
A seemingly harmless act of snacking could have had catastrophic consequences for one of the world's most iconic natural wonders. Imagine the shock of discovering that a simple bag of Cheetos, left behind by an unsuspecting visitor, could have triggered a chain reaction that threatened to devastate the delicate ecosystem of Carlsbad Caverns. The incident, which occurred in … [Read more...] about A Cheetos Crisis: How a Simple Snack Bag Could Have Devastated a Cave Ecosystem