Amphibia
Fauna
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Proteus
anguinus, photo by Arne Hodalic |
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Proteus Anguinus by Arne Hodalic "...Naposled je dodal, da je pred dvema letoma ujel zmaja, ga nesel domov in tu obesil. Visel je tri tedne. S tem se je izkazalo, kakor sem si bil ze sam predstavljal: dozdevni zmaj je bil komaj ped dolg in po obliki podoben kuscarju. Skratka bil je crv in gomazen, kakrsne je ponekod pac vec. In iz tega so preprosti ljudje hoteli po sili napraviti zmaja!..." J.V. Valvasor, Slava vojvodine (Kranjske, 1689)
In terms of the construction of its body the human fish is a member of a family of amphibians: Proteidae, to be precise. The family comprises only two genera: Proteus, with only one species living in the water of the Dinaric Karst in the area from Slovenia to Herzegovina, and Necturus, indigenous to surface waters in North America. The human fish, or locally mocheril (etymologically, that which burrows into wetness), is the only cave amphibian and is the largest of true cave animals, that is those which can not survive ouside the caves. One of the characteristics of amphibians is metamorphosis; the larva of tadpole living in water and breathing with gills develops into an adult animal which leaves the aquatic environment and breathes with lungs like a land animal. But the human fish appears not to complete the metamorphosis. It reaches sexual maturity as a larva. So far, science has still not entirely explained neoteny, as this phenomenon is called. But one thing is certain, namely, that this peculiarity is somehow connected with the production of the hormone thyroxine, in spite of the fact that proteus does not react to the substance in the way other amphibians do. Scientists have many attempts to force the unfortunate proteus to metamorphose, but in vain. The animal stays all its live and breathes through gills, althoug it also has rudimentary lungs.
Scopoli could not keep his enthusiasm about the discovery of a new animal species to himself. He sent several animals preserved in alcohol to scientists all over the world, he studied human fish, drew them and was preparing to make his great discovery public. In the meantime, a Viennese doctor and zoologist, J. N. Laurenti, admired the completely unknown animal which Scopoli had sent to a friend living in Klagenfurt. Before the meticulous natural scientist from Idrija could announce his discovery, Laurenti stole a march on him and entered history as the discoverer of a new animal species. He called it Proteus anguinus after the shepherd of the creatures of the sea, the Greek god Proteus, son of the sea-god Poseidon and the nymph Naiad. Scopoli was left empty-handed before the scientific public, whereas Laurenti won the fame of the first discovery without even being certain where his "discovery" had come from. Whatever, he named Cerknisko Jezero (Lake Cerknisko) as the place of his discovery, which at the time enjoyed the fame of an Austro-Hungarian Loch Ness. Despite his haste, the scientific name which Laurenti chose for the local "Nessie" has stuck. |
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MIRACLE OF NATURE
A special chapter in the history of research into the human fish deals with the mysterious question of the animal's reproduction. Divers have swum through kilometres of siphons and underground lakes, researchers have turned countless stones, but so far nobody has seen where or how the life of this mysterious creature begins. We can only assume that proteus reproduces deep down in the peaceful and inaccessible watercourses of the karst underground. THREATENED SPECIES
Due to the difficulty of access to the true habitat of proteus in the karst underworld, and the high number of caves that have still to be discovered, and parhaps never will be, it is completely impossible to estimate the size of the proteus population, both white and black. This represents a considerable obstacle to our work, but we know that Slovenia is the richest in underground aquatic animal life in relative terms and even in terms ob absolute figures it does not lag behind areas ten times larger. Or at least it used not to. A few years ago you had to watch your every step to avoid treading on human fish in the Kocevje caves. Today, not one remains. Dumping all sorts of filth onto the surface of the Karst region is extremely risky, for precepitation washes poisons underground in unpredictable directions. Proteus has for a long time been on the list of the Washington CITES convention, which prohibits trade in rare wild animals. But unscrupulous dealers do not give a second thought to this, and this animal from the top of the endangered list appears regulary on price lists in Italian shops for wealthy aquarists. Even biologists and many other scientists from all over the world use this disreputable method to acquire specimens for their research. Arne HodalicSources:
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This page compliments of Marisa Ciceran Created: Wednesday, August 21,
2002; Last updated:
Saturday, September 08, 2007
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As early as 1689, the famous chronicler of the province
of Carniola, 
The famous 18th century Swedish scientist Karl von Linné (Linnaeus),
whom may refer to as the "father of systematics", already regarded it as
a larva. He did not include proteus to his natural order as an independent
animal species and, of course, made a big mistake. As early as 1772, this
great authority was, albeit diferentially, challenged by Giovanni A. Scopoli,
a physician at the 
Completely adapted to eternal darkness, the human fish
hides in the depths of underground sources far from our inquisitive gaze.
The pale skin contains no pigment and the tiny eyes can be seen only at
the foetal stage. Later they athropy and skin grows over them. Approximately
25 cm long, with a flat tail surrounded by a skin-like fin, used for swimming,
it is snaked-like and this is the reason for its Latin species name anguinus
(anguis = snake). It can also move using tvo pairs of legs - the front
ones have three digits and the hind ones two. The entire body is more or
less sensitive to light. environment. It breathes in three ways. It
has an excelent sense of smell and it probably also has a highly specialised
sense for weak electric currents, whic could partly explain its orientation
abilities in the total darkness of the cave. On either side of its body,
at the back of its head, there are three pairs of extended gills which
have excellent blood circulation and are therefore of a bright red colour.
In addition it has simple lungs, and when out of water it also breathes
through its skin, for we must not forget that almost absolute humidity
prevails in the cave environment.
It eats small animals, such as cave shrimps, amphipods and the larvae of
various insects. Sometimes, under the cover of the night, human fish swinm
to the cave exit where they hunt for small surface water animals. Cannibalism
is not unusual in mocherils either, but a fully-grown animal can naturaly
only atack very small young, as its blunt muzzle and smell teeth make it
no fearsome predator. Proteus has always caused great fascination, since
it can remain in captivity without food for an incredibly long period.
Reliable and documented reports by various observers are known about their
ability to go without food, the longest such period having gone on at the
Faculty of Biotechnology for the last 12 years. It sounds impossible, but
at the same time we know proteus' metabolism must be extremely decelerated,
since the human fish reaches sexual maturity only at the age of 16 to 18
years and it may even reach the grand old age of 100.
Proteus does not have a single enemy in its natural environment
and an adult animal can swim freely in the underwater labyrinths without
having to fear the slightest danger. But proteus does have one enemy, the
worst and most ruthless of all: man.