The Wanders of Mysterious Animals

Chapter 3 (Olms)

    Olms are amphibians and are carnivorous. Another name for Olm is the human fish. The scientific name for the Olms is Proteus anguinus. Proteus tells what group of animals the Olms belong to and Anguinus is the species name for Olms. An adjective that describes a human fish is slimy. They can survive without food for ten years or a decade. Olms live in Slovenia and Croatia caves in water. The water comes from the Isonzo river.

 This is where Olms live Known settings of olms

    Olms are vulnerable species because they have less than 2,000 km2 for their habitat which is declining quite quickly. Olms never grow up. They can survive for about 100 years or a century. The habitat of olms is getting destroyed by the pollution of the waters. Their survival is getting more and more difficult to maintain. The olms may not be on top of the list of endangered species to save but they still need saving.

The damage on their habitat

    An olm female adult lays sixty-four eggs once or twice a decade over several weeks during January and February. Only one in every 250 eggs are born. The olms have evolved to have no eyes. If you look closely you can see the spot where the eyes used to be. The locals who live near them call them the human fish because the olms’ skin is pinkish. They eat snails, worms, and aquatic insects.

Olm’ egg

An olm hatching

    These creatures are born blind with no eyes. They have holes where they used to be. Their skin can’t protect them from the sun’s ray and that's why they adapted to the darkness of the caves. The olms have three fingers in the front legs and the backs have two fingers. Their sense of smell is excellent. There are two subspecies of olms are white olms and black olms. These subspecies have a different set of teeth as the original. The original species has 21 to 25 teeth on each dentary and has 5 to 8 teeth on each coronoid. The white olm has 22–30 teeth on the vomer, 8–10 teeth on the premaxilla, and 6 teeth on the palatopterygoid. The black olm has 6–7 teeth on the premaxilla, 5–6 teeth on the palate pterygoid, and 16–17 on the vomer.

Olm’s font leg

Olm’s hind leg

Olm’s mouth