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September 14, 2024

Bag of Cheetos left behind in cave at New Mexico national park ‘world changing,’ officials say

CARLSBAD, N.M. – A Cheetos snack bag left behind in a cave at New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park led to park officials condemning the seemingly innocuous litter for instead disrupting the delicate underground ecosystem. The snack bag was dropped in the Big Room, the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America, according to the NPS.They said the leftover Cheetos provided an ideal environment for hosting fungi and microbial life, as the processed corn in the snack was softened by the humidity of the cave.This led to creatures, such as cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies, forming a temporary food web and spreading the nutrients in the Cheetos throughout the cave and formations, the NPS added.In doing so, molds were carried higher up the cave walls and other surfaces, where they began to fruit, die and cause a stench.INFANT AMONG 3 RESCUED AFTER SUFFERING HEAT EXHAUSTION HIKING AT TEXAS NATIONAL PARK The NPS said park rangers spent 20 minutes removing the mold and foreign detrius from the cave surfaces.”At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing,” they noted.HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHERCarlsbad Caverns National Park is home to more than 119 caves, which formed when limestone was dissolved by sulfuric acid, according to the NPS.No food and drink are allowed in the caves, except for plain water.