vertical relief

The last three weeks have exceeded the normal excitement of being a cave biologist, so I thought I'd share some of my experiences:

Two vertical caves

going in backwards
going down

looking up

almost up

Some great wildlife encounters


a bobcat, yes, I didn't expect that, and no, thankfully it didn't retaliate for my disturbance
over 100,000 bats is an unfathomable scene, this shot is a tiny, tiny tidbit of the colony, how many can you count?
and as if I hadn't had enough excitement, a helicopter ride

thanks to Mark Miller and Kevin McCarthy for some of these photos, and my colleague Tony for posing on the rope in the 'looking up' shot.