Opened snack packet dropped in US cave could have ‘world changing’ impact on ecosystem within

NEW MEXICO – A packet of snacks dropped in a cave in the south-western US state of New Mexico could have “world changing” ramifications for its denizens.

In a Facebook post on Sept 6, Carlsbad Caverns National Park showed a photo of a bag of Cheetos, a cheese-flavoured corn puff snack, on the ground of the largest cave chamber in North America. Known as the Big Room, it has been described as “the Grand Canyon with a roof over it”.

“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 organise into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Moulds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.”

Park rangers spent 20 minutes clearing up the waste and mould resulting from the packet, which had been dropped away from the visitor trail.

“Some members of this fleeting ecosystem are cave-dwellers, but many of the microbial life and moulds 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,” said the park in its post.

According to the website of US government agency National Park Service (NPS), any consumption of food and drink, except plain, unflavoured water, is prohibited in any cave in Carlsbad Caverns.

“Food use has the potential for cavern contamination, increased litter, and increased animal attraction into cavern areas not usually frequented by wildlife,” states its website.

Park guide Joseph Ward told Forbes that it is not known where the packet of Cheetos came from, although there is a possibility it may have come from an area of the cave designated as a rest area, which also contains a snack bar. However, food purchased at the snack bar has to be consumed there.

“A visitor might have snuck the bag into the cave even after receiving an orientation that says no food or drink except clean drinking water is allowed inside the cave,” he said, adding that it was unknown how long the Cheetos bag was on the floor of the cave.

Mr Ward said that park rangers check the trail every evening to ensure all visitors are out of the cave, and clean up trash along the way.

“It could have been missed by one of the rangers but even still, I do not think that the bag was there for more than a couple of days.”

In a statement to The Washington Post, a professor of biological, earth and environmental sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales Sydney said that caves are “quite extreme places to survive”.

“There’s no light. Water can be limited. Nutrients are in short supply,” said Prof Andy Baker. “So the critters that live in caves have adapted to that environment.”

He said: “Add food of any kind, and that could disrupt the balance of the cave ecosystem.”

Dr Jut Wynne, an assistant research professor of biological sciences at Northern Arizona University, said “a lot of folks today treat national parks like theme parks”, adding that park officials have used the Cheetos mishap to stress how human actions are altering the natural world.

Carlsbad Caverns spans 18,925ha across its network of 120 known caves – more than a quarter of Singapore’s total land area. It is managed by the NPS.

The park limits the number of visitors to the cave daily, with ticket reservations required for entry. The cave sees an average of 500,000 visitors annually, with a report in September showing that tourism to the area had contributed US$31.9 million (S$41.3 million) to the local economy.

In a Facebook post in August, Carlsbad Cavern was said to have had more than 60,000 cave formations that have been broken or damaged, with most of them “probably” from human interactions, with some taking them home as illegal souvenirs.

A US national programme, Leave No Trace, encourages visitors to the country’s wilderness, parks and other outdoor attractions to minimise their impact on the environment, conserving natural conditions and protecting these experiences for future visitors to enjoy.