 |
Jamaican Caving Notes |
 |
| Caving News | Jamaican Caves Organisation | JCO Main Page |
| JCO Funding and Tours | Contact the JCO |
|
Puskurrunkus Cave (Possible JU listing as Southfield Cave) June 11, 2006 - 15:00-15:30 EST Team: RS Stewart, IC Conolley, J Pauel, M Taylor |
||
|
District: Duanvale |
Parish: Trelawny |
|
|
WGS84 L/L: 18 24 27.4 N; 77 35 31.1 W |
|
|
|
JAD69: 187340 E, 194927 N |
JAD2001: 687451 E, 695216 N |
|
|
Altitude: 195m WGS84 |
Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical |
|
|
Type: Complex shelter cave |
Accessibility: Walk-in |
|
|
Depth: N/A |
Length: 12m |
|
|
Explorers: Unknown |
Survey: None |
|
|
Entrance size: 5m W x 3m H |
Entrance aspect: 180 deg true |
|
|
Vegetation in general locale: Farm |
Vegetation at entrance: Farm |
|
|
Rock type: White limestone |
Bedding: Poor |
Jointing: Poor |
|
Speleothems: Stals |
Palaeo resources: None seen |
|
|
Archaeo resources: Reserved |
||
|
Hydrology: Dry |
Siltation: N/A |
|
|
Dark zone: 0%. |
Climate: Warm, dry. |
|
|
Bats: <50 |
Bat guano: Little |
|
|
Guano mining: Some |
Guano condition: Dry/compact |
|
|
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None |
Neoditomyia farri: None |
|
|
Amblypygids: None |
Periplaneta americana: None |
|
|
Cave crickets: None |
Sesarma: None |
|
|
Other species: None. This site has no true dark-zone. It is an occasional roost for Artibeus jamaicensis (large fruit-bats). |
||
|
Visitation: Frequent - local. |
Speleothem damage: None |
|
|
Graffiti: Some |
Garbage: None |
|
|
Ownership: Private |
Protection: None |
|
|
Vulnerability: Low |
|
|
|
Puskurrunkus Cave June 11, 2006 - 15:00-15:30 EST Notes: RS Stewart Puskurrunkus is a small cave formed in a hill to the north of the Duanvale-Kinloss road. The hike required to reach it from the closest minor road is only about 30 metres, on slightly upward-sloping ground. There is no true dark-zone in the cave, so we have assigned the type as “complex shelter”, the “complex” noting that there is a light-hole opening on the north side of the cave, along with the main entrance on the south. Biological activity is restricted to occasional use by low numbers of the common fruit-bat, A. jamaicensis. Surprisingly, we did not observe any of the cave-breeding frogs, E. cundalli, although it would seem to be suitable habitat for them. We suspect that they do use the cave at times, but happened to be absent during our visit. There is graffiti on the walls of the cave, but we saw no damage to formations. As with several other of the other sites in the district, there appears to be archaeo potential (a possible glyph was observed). The lack of a true dark-zone results in this cave not being biologically vulnerable to occasional visitation; there are no trog species; the bat numbers are lower than what some people have in their attics, and made up of the species that is the least threatened in Jamaica. Southfield Cave is listed in Alan Fincham’s work, Jamaica Underground, to be in the general area, but there is no specific information given. We quote: “Duanvale area. Type: Unknown: (page 337, second edition). |
| Jamaican Cave Notes - Main Page | June 2006 Caving Notes - Main Page |