Context: Recently, Cave-dwelling ‘baby dragons’ go on display for first time in Slovenia. In a bid to protect the creatures and gather more information about them, cave authorities kept them far from visitors in a cave laboratory.
Key Points

• The cave-dwelling animals called proteus or olms, have pale pink skin, no eyesight, a long thin body and four legs.
• They can grow up to a foot in length, making them the world’s largest cave-dwelling animals.
• They live only in the waters of dark caves of the southern European Karst region.
• Postojna Cave is the Europe’s largest cave have these olms kept in a special subterranean aquarium where the general public will be able to see them for the first time since they hatched in 2016.

About Karst Topography

• Karst is a landscape which is underlain by limestone which has been eroded by dissolution, producing towers, fissures, sinkholes, etc.
• It is so named after a province of Yugoslavia on the Adriatic sea coast where such formations are most noticeable.
• Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum.
• It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes, caves etc..
• There is a general absence of surface drainage and dry surface valleys – most of the surface water has gone underground.

Conditions Essential for Full Development of Karst Topography

• Presence of soluble rocks, preferably limestone at the surface or sub-surface level.
• These rocks should be dense, highly jointed and thinly bedded.
• Relatively thick massive soluble rock, i.e., limestone, dolomite, or chalk.
• Carbonate rocks should be very close to the ground surface.
• Lime stones should not be porous.
• Limestone should be highly folded, faulted or fractured.
• Marked development of joints. If the rock is bedded, the beds should be thin.
• Considerable relief so that water is capable of circulation to cause typical karst topography.
• Moderate to heavy rainfall to cause solution of rocks.

Importance of Karst topography

• Caves are large enough survival of animals, forest dwellers.
• The karstified limestone acts as aquifers it contain huge amount of water, which can used during dry months. 
• Example: Two million people in central Texas get their drinking water from the karst aquifer known as the Edwards Aquifer.