For the first time, the strange amphibian that loves the darkness of underground waters has been observed in daylight.
The discovery, published in the journal Ecology, is thanks to the State University of Milan, in collaboration with the Adriatic Society of Speleology and the Spleovivarium of Trieste.
The proteus (Proteus anguinus), of which researchers also spotted a three-month-old larva, is among the most curious animals on the planet: its skin is devoid of pigmentation, its eyes are almost absent, it has an eel-like body, it can live up to 100 years and fast for eight.
It is widespread in Slovenian caves, including Postojna, and in Italian underground waters, particularly in the provinces of Trieste and Gorizia.
Until now it has always been considered an exclusively underground amphibian, but research launched in June 2020 and based on data collected during day and night inspections in ten caves and 69 springs in the karst area, between the municipalities of Doberdò del Lago and Monfalcone (Gorizia).
In 15 of these, several specimens of proteus were observed coming out of the caves to feed on earthworms that remained submerged during the periodic rising of the water table.
Furthermore, the three-month-old larva observed by the researchers is both the only one ever seen outside a cave and the first ever observed in Italy, and the smallest proteus ever seen in nature.
"The research does not stop here. Thanks to a recent Prin del Mur loan, starting from this year the surveys will be extended to the entire aquatic community from the deepest underground areas to those at the interface with the outside and will also involve areas in where the proteus does not live like Salento and the province of Como", says the first author of the study, zoologist Raoul Manenti, of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policies of the University of Milan.
"From the comparison between the food chains and the dynamics of the communities in which the proteus is present and those in which it is not present, we expect - he adds - to understand how important its role is as a regulator of energy flows and environmental pressures ".
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