Las Cuevas de Chilibre

Chilibrillo Cave - Chilibre Caves

Useful Information

Location:	Near Chilibre. Chagres National Park, near Panama City. On the southern shore of the artificial Lago Alajuela.
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Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	none
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Bibliography:	R.V. Chamberlin (1942): Two new Centipeds from the Chilibrillo Caves, Panama, Pan Pacif. ent. 18: 125-126. G. B. Fairchild, M. Hertig (1947): Notes on the Phlebotomus of Panama (Diptera, Psychodidae). I. The subgenus Brumptomyia França and Parrot, 1921, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 40, 4: 610-616. S. B. Peck (1971): The invertebrate fauna of tropical American caves, part I: Chilibrillo Cave, Panama, Annales de Spéléologie 26, no. 2: 423-37.
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As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1974	surveyed by Peck.
1974	cave fumigated by public health authorities to remove the bat colonies.

Description

There are numerous caves in Chagres National Park along the southern shore of the artificial Lago Alajuela at an altitude of some 100 m asl. They are generally small and shallow. Karren, enlarged solutional joints, and numerous small caves are present within the borders of the park.

Las Cuevas de Chilibre (Chilibrillo Cave) is one of the biggest caves here, and probably the most intensively studied and most well known one. In the forties, R.V. Chamberlin studied the centipedes of the cave, in the sixties several types of millipedes were studied by Loomis, later in the seventies the invertebrates were studied by S. B. Peck. The cave is gated for its protection.

This is one of the longest caves in the area and has been extensively studied. Whilst walking through the park, keep an eye open for the highly poisonous fer-de-lance (pit viper) which appears to like cave entrances.

Text by Tony Oldham (2004). With kind permission.