The cave worm, actually an insect's larva, and a small spider also make their homes in the cave. How long these insects have lived in the cave is anybody's guess. Naturalists think the first few crickets may have fallen into the cave and remained there due to the abundance of the food supply, living peacefully and multiplying at leisure. But this cricket's Shang-ri-la lost its comparative safety one day, maybe centuries ago, when a cave mouse is thought to have fallen in. He found the crickets abundant and tasty and, since he couldn't climb out, stayed in his new subterranean home. Maybe later Mrs. Cave Mouse met the same fate and together they became parents and grandparents of litters who have lived in the cave ever since. The cliff mouse also lives his complete life cycle in the black depths of the Caverns, and together with the cave mouse they have a carefree existence, for none of their natural enemies live in the cave. Any herbivorous animals which might have fallen into the cave would soon die, for the only vegetation to be found in the cave, aside from a certain amount of mold, exists in scant proportions near the cave entrances where there is some light and a little moisture. Thus only carnivorous or insectivorous animals or insects could exist in the vegetation-free depths. Of the animals which occasionally frequent the cave, the cacomixle, commonly known as a ring-tailed cave cat or even just "ring-tail," is perhaps the best known. This slender raccoon-like animal doesn't spend all his time in the cave, for he is able to crawl in and out, but he does raise his family in the cracks and crevices of the walls, and eats an occasional cave mouse or guano bat. Outside he eats fruit and other small animals and insects. Apparently they have never been too numerous in the Caverns. The only other animal to have made the cave its home is the great horned owl. His nests have been found in considerable numbers near the entrances where he has been living for countless years in comparative safety. But, like the bats, he ventures outside in search of food, and spends his nights away from the cave, so at best he, like the ringtail, is only a part-time resident. So the cricket depends on the bats, the mice on the cricket, and the ringtail on the mice. Thus is the life cycle within the great cave. But when did man first visit the Caverns? That question is indeed problematic and may never be definitely answered. The early Folsom people have been traced to an encampment site some fifteen miles south of Clovis, New Mexico, which they occupied some time between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. Chipped stone dart points associated with a post-glacial species of bison have been found imbedded in the earth in rock strata going back that many years. These wandering hunters were known as "Bison Nomads" and it is not at all improbable that they knew of the cave and frequented it. They could have been the first humans to have entered it.