Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno

Overview

Located in the Dinaric mountain range, the property stands out with its remarkable cave biodiversity and endemicity. Known since antiquity, the well-conserved representation of karst topography is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots for cave-dwelling fauna, notably subterranean aquatic fauna. It is home to a number of globally threatened vertebrate species, and the only subterranean tubeworm in the world, as well as a diversity of plant species endemic to the Balkans. Additionally, several of the species found in Vjetrenica Cave are tertiary and pre-tertiary relict species, meaning that many of them can be considered living fossils whose closest relatives went extinct a long time ago.