Cuba | Caverns

In the mangrove forest lowering your guard for even an instant can mean death, and though the crocodiles, her worst enemies, can’t reach her here, the hutias have other predators, and the Cuban boa or maja is one of the most fearsome. 

For the hutias of the mangrove forest, moving across the ground represents a constant risk. They are perfectly able to climb, run or swim, but the waters of Zapata always contains vigilant eyes, and even when you feel you are safe, death may be right behind you, ready to pounce.

In the interior of the island, where the mangrove forest seems most impenetrable, the rocks are pierced by deep caverns that lead to the sea. 

These hidden, submerged caverns, unsuspected worlds where time appears to have stood still, are the home of one of the most fascinating and unknown creatures of the Cuban mangrove forest: the blind fish of the Cubanichthys genus. Virtually nothing is known about them. Over many thousands of years, their world of perpetual darkness has gradually robbed them of their pigments and their vision.

They are now white shadows in a black world; relics of a nocturnal, marine ancestor who, equipped with lungs, was able to cope with the osmotic changes of increasingly fresh water, and set off to explore these flooded caves. 

Propelled elegant undulations of its continuous dorsal and ventral fins, these Cubanichthys swim with the tranquillity that comes from knowing you live in an exclusive world where there are no predators, alert for signals indicating the presence of the freshwater shrimps on which they feed. 

At present there are four known species of Cuban blind fish, but in-depth studies have yet to be carried out. How were they able to adapt to the radical changes between two worlds so completely different as the dark freshwater caves and the bright marine world of the reef? Who was that pioneer from the corals that set out on the evolutionary adventure that led to these ghosts of the caverns? 

Like so many other questions, the answers remain hidden, concealed in the mysterious labyrinth of the impenetrable mangrove forest.