Bat Cave, Phnom Sampeu, Battambang, Cambodia

In  2008 on the caving expedition to Cambodia, we spent time exploring and surveying caves in the Battambang area. The best known hill is Phnom Sampov (Sampeu). Phnom Sampeu is the famous hill which contains the killing caves and is on the tourist itinerary. It is a striking limestone outcrop with a wat on top.

Towards the end of a day spent surveying caves on the hill, we descended and had a look at the northern side, which is on the opposite side to the killing caves. Here we saw Bat Cave. 

 

In our reports, we called the cave La Ang Pracheu. Our description (from BHB 34) -  "Called “PSW4 (Million Bat Cave) by Herries (2006a). This cave is located at the base of Phnom Sampeu near to where an 18 m high Buddha is currently being carved out of the rock face. A steep 15 m climb is needed to reach the large cave mouth. However, a strong stench  of bat guano and the noise of the large bat colony successfully keeps explorers out of  the cave, which consequently remains unsurveyed."

Apparently the bats of Bat Cave have become a tourist attraction. The Khmer Times, 7 Jan 2004 has an article "Phnom Sampov bat cave attracting more tourists".  The article says that during the last months of 2023, more national and international tourists flocked to visit Phnom Sampov (Sampov mountain) bat cave in Battambang province. It goes on to say -

And a photo taken from the Khmer Times, AKP -

There are lots of photos of the bat flight on Trip Advisor.

To the right of Bat Cave, a large statue is being constructed (2008) -

I had seen the statue on a visit in 2004. In my diary, 4 Sept 2004, after visiting the caves up on the hill, I wrote "We began the long descent to the car park, using the 700 (?) stairs. This killed my poor knees. I went to look at the cliff face where they are just starting to carve a 38 m high Buddha. The mural will be 120 m long and will take 7 years to complete. Quite a feat. I had to give a donation. Women were manually breaking stones.

In 2008 I wrote in my diary "Bat Cave, this has the large entrance and is to the right of the new Buddha they are carving. There has not been much progress on this since my 2004 visit."

I googled the statue and 

Exclusive Cambodia Travel

Ret Bopha

There are hundreds more photos on the internet, especially on Google Maps, under Bat Cave Phnom Sampov.

References :

Berliner Höhlenkundliche Berichte BHB 34 (2009) Cambodia (Battambang) and its replacement BHB 77 (2019) Cambodia 1995/96–2017.

Herries, A. (2006a): Battambang Karst, North West Cambodia. – unpublished report, 11 p.

Herries, A. (2006b) Explorations in Cambodian Karst. Battambang Province, North West Cambodia. – SUSS Bull., 46 (2), 8-13; Sydney.

And my 2008 blog, Battambang Caves 1 - Phnom Sampeu 2008

Cave fauna in lava tubes in Vietnam

The lava tubes we explored in south Vietnam are quite rich in cave fauna, mainly invertebrates. We were based in Than Phu, in Dong Nai province, about 125 km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City in south Vietnam. We were there in February which is the dry season and the whole area was incredibly dry.

We saw very little fauna above ground, just the occasional lizard. There was far more life underground, in the cooler and damper lava tubes. However the tubes are quite warm compared to limestone caves.

There was no water in any of the tubes we visited, though some had damp mud. Many had roots coming in through the ceiling and walls.

There were surprisingly few bats in these lava tubes, though there was evidence that they had been hunted, as there were many wooden poles and nets lying around in various caves.

We saw a variety of invertebrates.
Spiders were always noticeable by their eye shine in our lights. In many caves they were throughout the cave, but in the longest cave they were only seen near the entrance. They are Sparassidae: Heteropodinae (thanks to Peter Jaeger for the ID) -

Web spiders were far fewer in numbers.

I saw 2 types of cricket -

They are probably Rhaphidophoridae , Subfamily Aemodogryllinae .

I only saw a couple of long legged centipedes. They are a different colour from those in Malaysia.
This one was climbing up tree roots -

Whip spiders were particularly common -

One was identified by Michael Seiter as Phrynichus orientalis.

This was a dead one being eaten by millipedes -

 And another live one -

There were also whip scorpions (Uropygi) -

Millipedes were only seen in 2 caves.

Jean-Jacques Geoffroy (France) identified them as belonging to the family Cambalopsidae. The genus could be Glyphiulus or Plusioglyphiulus (or even Trachyiulus or Hypocambala).

Cockroaches were only seen in one cave. That cave was close to houses so they could have come from there. They are Periplaneta Americana

There were surprisingly few frog species. These tiny little guys - Micryletta inornata - were cute and quick to hop away from the camera  -

 This larger one - Polypedates leucomystax - was close to an entrance (thanks to Lee Grismer for frog ID) -

I was looking for scorpions but saw none. The only ones we came across were these large ones found when digging open a cave -

Some mammals use the caves. In several caves I saw rats, with white chests, Niviventer spp. .
I'm think this is one as well -

This might be a rat -

This skull may be a dog

Porcupine also use the caves and the locals put traps at the entrances to catch them. This is a quill -

These droppings could be from porcupine -

A pile of droppings covered in fungus, note the polished rock above the droppings-

In one cave the locals collected the porcupine droppings to use as fertilizer.

Bats were less numerous than expected. All were insect eating bats. As there were signs of the locals trapping them in nets, maybe that accounts for less bats than a year ago when some of the cavers visited (at the same time of the year). Surprisingly the most bats seemed to be in a cave with very bad air. This cave was also particularly warm. And at the entrance we saw quite a few dead bats, Pomona Roundleaf Bat (Hipposideros pomona) -

There are 6 bats flying in this photo -

 

 

Surprisingly I only saw 1 gecko in the caves , Cyrtodactylus -

See more on the lava tubes :

Part 1 Gia Ray area

Part 2 Than Phu area

Shapes of lava tubes

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Bat caves

Bat Conservation International are doing a project to identify priority bat caves around the globe. The information will be used to prioritize their international conservation work in the upcoming years.

I was asked for info about such sites in southeast Asia. Although there are many caves containing bats in Malaysia, there are few in the peninsula with significant colonies of bats.

And few of these caves have been studied for bat species, so it is unknown if there are any rare or endangered cave bats.

© Liz Price No reproduction without permission

Goa Lalay, Pelabuhan Ratu, Java

Goa Lalay or Bat Cave, is a small cave, about 4.5 km south of Pelabuhan Ratu, on the south coast of West Java, Indonesia.

It is a small cave with a large colony of bats, famous for the evening bat flight. The main bat cave is fenced off, this is from where the bats emerge each night. Entrance fee to watch was Rp1000 in 2002.

I went in a small neighbouring cave which seemed to be just one chamber with some tunnels leading off, but I had no torch. There was lava like sand on the floor.

There are 4 caves here, one is used as a meditation cave. Seems to be an old sea cave complex.

Lalay is bat in Sundanese language.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Gua Kelawar, Batu Kurau, Perak

Batu Kurau is an isolated limestone outcrop, near Anak Kurau in Perak.

My first visit to Batu Kurau was in August 1998. On that trip we surveyed Gua Kelawar, which is the biggest cave. It is 157 m long. To reach the cave you have to walk through the river

This entrance is quite small and hidden by vegetation in 1998

We used this entrance in 2007

The main feature of the cave is the bats. Lots of them.

The eye shine of the fruit bats can be seen on the bats

The main chamber was amazing. It was packed full of bats. The floor had a semi-solid lake of liquid guano. It was brown when stirred.

There was an incredible heat given off - I've never experienced this before. The noise of the bats was also new to me, as noisy as a steam train whistling. The bats were packed solidly on the roof. Their eyes were quite bright. They are probably all fruit bats. Even the Bat Cave at Gunung Tempurung doesn't seem to have the heat of this chamber. Needless to say we couldn't survey very accurately here due to the stench and the fact we weren't going to cross the guano lake! There were cockroaches on the walls.

There is a nice shaped 'window' leading to the main chamber

Looking out from the main chamber

Bats in the smaller passage

Evans wrote about the Batu Kurau caves in 1920 but doesn't seem to mention this particular cave.

Gua Kelawar register number Prk 59/11.

See more on Batu Kurau barber shop.

© Liz Price No reproduction without permission