The Joint International "Proteus Project" :
The "focal endangered species" of this current long-term hypogean species and habitat-conservation project is the 
amphibious cave salamander Proteus anguinus, more commonly known in the Balkans as.čovječija ribica.- or the "human fish".
It has this status within the project because it is the most well-known of the rare endemic species and because it has acquired universal
public fascination within the Balkans as being something of a myth or legend and a complete mystery.
We are using this public perception to our advantage, not only in promoting the project but in acquiring the co-operation of everyone to help us achieve the objectives.

The main strategy of the project is that of the protection of the species through protection of the natural karst habitat.
If the natural habitat of this mysterious hypogean species can be protected and conserved or managed, then the future of all the other associated hypogean faunal
species can also be assured.
Let us now briefly consider the scientific discipline that deals with the study of hypogean species.

The Hypogean Species :
The Society has no webpage(s) specifically dedicated either to the science of speleobiology per se or to its specific application within the long-term "Proteus Project",
even though our science programmes in Eastern Hercegovina and the wider Trebišnjica River Basin are intrinsically linked with this science !
The dedicated "Proteus Project" Webpages do provide an overview of the Project itself but do not attempt to describe any of the associated endangered hypogean fauna that co-exist
with Proteus anguinus in the same ecosystems.
Only on this specific Webpage, have we attempted to partly overcome this omission, which has been causing frustration to many of the European visitors to our Website.
Although we have now provided illustrations of some of the hypogean species associated with Proteus anguinus, we cannot reveal details of their specific habitat locations or about the
associated karst conduit-aquifer ecosystems.
The images are provided below and some additional bio-constructional drawings of the species are provided on the left-side of this Webpage.
The "Proteus Project" Webpages can now be accessed via the Link at the bottom of this Webpage. An expanding speleo-biological Glossary is also provided in Section 5.
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Background Image by the "Proteus Project's" Hungarian Cave Diving & Technical Support Team, "Caudata Hungarian Cave Research", 12 August 2006.

Identification of very similar hypogean species such as the decapod crustaceans has proved particularly daunting.
The Society is compiling a ready-reference catalogue to assist Project Research Assistants with this task.
A qualitative and quantitative inventory of the resident species in a karst conduit-aquifer ecosystem often relies on accurate visual differentiation between related sub-species,
supported by good video and photographic-stills records.

1b. TERRESTRIAL SPECIES (Facultative) :
This range of species are not so threatened as those of the aquatic range of species or amphibians. They are, none-the-less, exposed to threats caused by human activities. Such threats are often presented 
as (i) contamination of the terrestrial environment (waste carbide dumps, discarded dry batteries) resulting in the chemical poisoning of the environment and (ii) by the decimation of other species in the food-chain.
(Below - left)  Apfelbeckia lendenfeldii (Verhoeff,1896)- (Photo :  B. Lewarne, 06 Aug. 2002)
To ward off predators, it emits an ill-smelling fluid from openings along the body. We have found this large millipede in many caves, either at positions far inside the cave or within the entrance zone.
This is an herbivorous species.
(Below - right)  Trogulus torosus (Simon,1885)- (Photo :  B. Lewarne, 17 Sept. 2013)
This "harvestman" is a carnivorous species, living mostly on terrestrial snails.  If disturbed, we have noticed that it behaves as if it is dead, not responding to any provocation to move on!
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2. AMPHIBIA :
The only European cave amphibian is the famous salamander Proteus anguinus anguinus (Laur 1768), which is endemic to a small area of the Dinaric Karst. From great experience, we would describe its current 
status as being critically endangered. There are so very few hypogean ecosystems now remaining across its geographical range in the Dinaric, which can support this amazing animal. 
Pollution and massive hydrographic changes have reduced the number of viable hypogean ecosystems. In respect of the Dinaric Karst, the problems with the present method that various organizations around the 
world use to determine the status of many hypogean species (vulnerable, endangered, threatened. etc.) is that very little actual field evidence is available upon which to base their assumptions and also that they tend 
not to use a system which includes the factoring-in of data which correlates hypogean habitat locations with their parent hypogeanecosystems.
Proteus anguinus anguinus is an amphibian. Although more suited to an hypogean aquatic lifestyle, it can and often does venture out of its preferred aquatic habitat into the adjacent hypogean terrestrial 
domain, when this is both necessary and physically possible for it to do so.

3a. AQUATIC SPECIES (Obligate) :
The images below indicate but a small selection of the species which are under greatest threat, due mainly to either the total destruction of the natural karst hydrographic regime or its long-term, persistent 
chemical contamination by industrial, agricultural and domestic activities.
The images also indicate examples of the different types of habitat (niche habitats) within the hypogean karst conduit-aquifer ecosystem, which ideally support each of the species.
In this latter context, we ask you, not only to open your eyes wide and see what is illustrated, but to understand what you are seeing. Each image is giving very much information in addition to illustrating the main subject.
The continual entry of organic pollutants derived from personal care products, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals via wastewaters into rivers and streams is a cause for concern. Little is known about the long-term,
potentially toxic effects of these increasingly complex mixtures of pollutants.
Crustaceans are especially sensitive to the presence of organo-phosphorus insecticides and many pesticides such as Cypermethrin (a pyrethroid pesticide) and Chlorpyrifos.(an organo-phosphorus pesticide)
and the herbicides Isoproturon and Simazine, commonly used in agricultural activities, can also decimate populations if contamination occurs over long periods of time.
Although cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) can arise from natural sources, major human-induced sources come from the combustion of fossil fuels, particularly from power plants.
The case in hand which affects most of BiH-Eastern Hercegovina is that of the extraction and processing of low-quality lignite coal in Gatačko Polje and its subsequent use as a fuel in the Gacko-1 Thermo-electric 
Power Facility. 

Some of the primary indicators which we are using for the presence of long-to-medium-term poisonous contamination is that of the absence of Proteus anguinus in those hypogean aquatic habitats where it was once a
registered species, together with the presence / absence of cave snail species both in species diversity and population numbers.

(Below - left)  Marifugia cavatica (Absolon & Hrabé,.1930) - (Photo :  Dianovszki Tibor, 14 Aug. 2005)
The only known Polychaete hypogean stygobiotic freshwater tubeworm of the Family Serpulidae, (whose surface equivalent is the marine Keel worm Pomatoceros triqueter, also known as Serpula triquetra).
Usually seen in great colonies embedded on the roofs and walls of epi-phreatic passages; we have regularly encountered lone specimens scattered around various subterranean ecosystems. 
(Below - right)  Congeria kusceri (Bole) within a matrix of Marifugia cavatica (Absolon & Hrabé,.1930) - (Photo :  Hungarian Team 09 Aug. 2006)
Congeria kusceri (Bole) is a troglodytic 'living fossil' the only known stygobiotic bivalve mollusc or clam - from a genus thought to have been extinct since the Miocene, but alive and well in Eastern Hercegovina.
Maintenance of genetic variability in C. kusceri may result from long-term population size stability.
This underground species apparently was buffered from the climatic changes and resultant population bottlenecks that affected its surface-dwelling relatives during the Pliocene and Pleistocene Ice Ages.

A tubeworm inhabits a self-made tube. They live in an encasing tube made of substances from specialized cells. This tube substance is often based on calcium carbonate, complex mixtures of proteins and polysaccharides. 
Sediments like fine sand grains or remains of dead shells stick to it and help strengthen the structure. 
The tubeworms do not leave their tubes willingly. The tube-building worms are gathered in an informal functional group called a Sedentaria.
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(Below - left)  Troglocaris anophthalmus anophthalmus. (Kollar,.1848) - (Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 05 Aug. 2007)
A stygobiotic decapod crustacean.
(Below - right)  Troglocaris (Speleocaris) pretneri.(Matjašič,.1956) - (Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 09 Sept. 2008)
An extremely rare stygobiotic decapod crustacean.
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(Below - left)  Niphargus balkanicus (Absolon,.1927) -.(Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 09 Sept. 2008)
Another stygobiotic amphipod, usually seen browsing the cave sediment and wall surfaces for food, as evidenced here in the photograph.
They have a peculiar swimming gait, travelling upside-down in motion, before flipping over when coming to rest on a surface.
(Below - right)  Niphargus balkanicus (Absolon,.1927) with.Troglocaris anophthalmus anophthalmus.(Kollar,.1848) -.(Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 05 Aug. 2007)
A comparatively small mixed-species shoal of stygobiotic crustaceans browsing for food on a sand and gravel bank in a typical viable hypogean aquatic ecosystem in Eastern Hercegovina.

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(Below - left)  Troglocaris anophthalmus anophthalmus.(Kollar,.1848).-.(Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 09 Aug. 2008)
.... with many Cave Snails.
(Below - right)  Monolistra hercegoviniensis (Absolon,.1916)-.(Photo :  Gergely Balázs, 04 Aug. 2007)
A stygobiotic isopod, endemic to Hercegovina, here seen browsing amongst an area of fine to coarse mud and vegetative organic debris, the latter material being the darker areas in the cave sediment.
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(Below) Metohia carinata.(Absolon,1927).-.(Photo :  Lerner Balázs, 09 Sep. 2013)

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Cave snails present us with another particularly intractable problem within the "Proteus Project". We are in desperate need of a speleo-malacologist to help us identify the very diverse range of species that 
we are finding. This is a very specialist area of speleobiology and although we are making some progress with species identification, we need to move much faster on this critical area of our work.
Cave snails are threatened by contamination from the use of pesticides and molluscicides used in areas on the karst surface which are increasingly being cultivated as vineyards.
Cave snails are an essential part of any healthy hypogean aquatic ecosystem, where they provide easily available food, which is rich in nutrients for consumption by higher aquatic forms such as crustaceans 
and for Proteus anguinus. We illustrate a few examples below, where the integral scale-grid is always shown in miliimetres. 
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(Below - from left to right)  (i) Saxurinator brandti (Schütt, 1968), with some damage to the mouth of the aperture; (ii) Saxurinator brandti (Schütt, 1968);
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3b. AQUATIC SPECIES (Facultative) :
(in preparation)

Further up-to-date information can be obtained from our dedicated Webpage Trebinje Proteus Observatorium.