The Life of The Cave
Our Living World of Nature

Author: Charles E. Mohr and Thomas L. Poulson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill, Inc., NewYork, NY. 1966.
Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 66-24465
Number of Pages: 232

What bizarre creatures dwell in the caves of North America? How do these strange forms of life survive and flourish in a silent world of perpetual night?

This lavishly illustrated volume offers fascinating answers to these questions as it explores the great caverns beneath the surface of the earth. It explains how cave animals have evolved unusual physical and behavioral attributes that make them prisoners of their own strange world and forever prevent them from returning to the world of light.

Over 100 true-color photographs, 50 duotone and black-and-white photographs, and scores of precisely executed drawings reveal astonishing rock formations of great beauty and variety, rare reptiles and crustaceans, insects and fish, and astonishingly primitive forms of animal life. The book explains how built-in "biological clocks" synchronize the behavior of cave inhabitants with season changes above ground, how the inhabitants "import" their food from the outside world, how bats and pack rats navigate in total darkness, which surface animals are potential cave dwellers, how an abundance of food could kill cave animals, and much more.

In addition to a complete index and glossary, the appendices include a directory of caves within the National Park System and special features on cave formations and spelunking techniques. This volume in McGraw-Hill's Our Living World of Nature series was produced with the publishers of The World Book Encyclopedia and developed with the cooperation of the United States Department of the Interior.