Wailotua Cave - Viti Levu

 

100m from the village is the entrance to Wailotua cave

As well as swiftlets, Wailotua cave is home to the Fijian Blossom Bat (Notopteris macdonaldi) and is one of the few known nursery caves. The site is visited by tourists at least weekly for tours and to see the rock formation of the six headed snake. When asked whether the regular disturbance from the tours affects to bats, the villagers don’t believe so as the number of bats seem to be increasing with reproduction. 

 

Success!

The local village use this cave for three main purposes now - hunting (bats and fresh water prawns), collecting guano for manure, and for tourism. Hunting of bats in large numbers is seasonal where they use fire and smoke to scare them into one narrowing called “the pot”. They are captured and killed with sticks, nets or large sacks - 100-200 are caught at a time! There is possibly some correlation with status in the village and consumption which is the first I have come across so far. 

 

Historically (1930’s I was told) there was a European company that set up a guano mine here for many years. Occasionally the villagers will sell manure to other villages however most of the time people who use it just travel there to collect it themselves as there doesn’t appear to be an entrance fee if you’re a local. 10-25kg bags are collected a couple of times a year for use at planting time.

I’m interested to know why this site hasn’t been treated like Nakanacagi with the level of protection given the nursery status.