European seabass

Photo: underwater_dora · © all rights reserved

Dicentrarchus labrax uses the Elephant Cave entrance zone as a twilight hunting station, a behaviour documented at cave mouths across the western Mediterranean. Individuals exceeding 60 cm station themselves at the boundary between the dark cave interior and the illuminated exterior, ambushing small fish that use the cave for daytime shelter as they exit at dusk. The species is a key ecological connector between the cave ecosystem and the open reef outside, and its presence indicates a healthy prey base inside the chamber.