Cave Fauna of the Buffalo National River

The Buffalo National River (within Baxter, Marion, Newton, and Searcy counties, Arkansas) is completely underlain by karstic topography, and contains approximately 10% of the known caves in Arkansas. Biological inventory and assessment of 67 of the park's subterranean habitats was performed from 1999 to 2006. These data were combined and analyzed with previous studies, creating a database of 2,068 total species occurrences, 301 animal taxa, and 143 total sites. Twenty species obligate to caves or ground water were found, including four new to science. The species composition was dominated by arthropods. Statistical analyses revealed that site species richness was directly proportional to cave passage length and correlated to habitat factors such as type of water resource and organics present, but not other factors, such as degree of public use or presence/absence of vandalism. Sites were ranked for overall biological significance using the metrics of passage length, total and obligate species richness. Fitton Cave ranked highest and is the most biologically rich cave in this National Park and second-most in all of Arkansas with 58 total and 11 obligate species. Recommendations include continuation of physical and biological inventories, increased protection of high-ranking sites, and increased public education/outreach.