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CAIMAN TALK

Caiman firstly are reptiles, and all reptiles share certain features such asscaly skin, cold blood, which means they can regulate their bodytemperature using the external environment rather than the internal

metabolism en in most cases soft-shelled eggs.Secondly, caimans are crocodilians and crocodilians share certain featureas well, all crocodiles are semi-aquatic, they are very good swimmers,their bodies are log and slender and the tail very powerful to drive themforward, these animals are all very powerful predators, their principalweapon being the very strong jaws spending a lot of time cruisingaround with only the eyes and nostril above the water slowly so that, theycan creep up on their prey.

The crocodilians are a very old group of animals, they date back to the

Mesozoic era 270 million years ago, which also the time of the dinosaur,the crocodilians of this time reached about 15 meters (50 feet) and someof them fed on smaller dinosaur, but 70 million years ago when all thedinosaur became extinct for some reason, the crocodilians were alsoaffected in a large way, previously there were 11 families of crocodiliansliving in the world eight of them, disappeared and now a day only threefamilies still exist. These three families are:

1. Gharials. - They are oddest looking crocodilians and one of the

biggest crocodilians, male reaching from 16 to 20 feet (5-6 mts) andfemales 10 to 13 feet (3-4mts) and a life span of 40 to 60 years, theyare found only in India, Nepal and Bangladesh and are probably theleast known group generally, they live in the rivers where they feedon fish caught by closing their very long narrow snouts quickly to theside.

2. Crocodiles. - The crocodiles are the biggest family in terms of physical dimensions and normally considered to be the mostdangerous to man, they are found across a large area of the world in

Africa, across Asia, in the north of Australia, North and SouthAmerica, the Nile crocodile and pacific salt water crocodiles are thebiggest and most dangerous reaching up to 7 to 8 meters long and alife span of 50 to 75 years.

3. Alligators. They are found in the Americas, quite confusingly thisgroup is made up of the true alligators found in North America andCentral America and caimans are found in Central America andSouth America.

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Alligators and caimans appear rather similar to each other but they canbe told apart easily if we know what characteristics to look for, alligatorhas a broad rounded head while the head of a caiman is slightly more

pointed and caimans generally have much shorter tails than alligators.

And now, what most people want to know is the difference betweencrocodiles and alligators and actually the main difference betweencrocodiles and alligators is that the alligators are more docile and lessaggressive than crocodiles, but there are several ways to tell the twoapart.

One of this ways is looking at the shape of jaw:Alligators tend to have wider, U shape, rounded snouts while a crocodilestend to have longer more pointedVshape snout.

The Teeth:The fourth bottom tooth of the alligator fits into a slot in its upper jawwhile with a crocodile it sticks out and it can be seen from the outsidewhen the mouth is shut looking like it is smiling.

The Habitats:Crocodiles also have special glands in their tongues that can get rid ofexcess salt, so they tend to live in salt water habitats, alligators havethese glands too, but they dont work as well as the crocodiles so,

alligators prefer to live in fresh water habitats.

There are four species of caimans found in lakes, streams and riversaround here.These are:Dwarf caiman which reach 1.5 meters long.The smooth fronted caiman which reach 2 metres,These two caimans are small compared with the other caimans and arefound in smaller streams, tributaries, thus we will not see them out on theRio Tambopata.

We are more likely to see the spectacled caiman and the black caiman. Sowe are going to talk more about these two bigger caimans.

The spectacled caiman is a small to medium sized crocodilian malesgenerally reach 2.5 meters long (7 feet) 100 to 150 kg. Females aresmaller reaching a maximum size of 1.5 meters long. Its common namederives from a bony ridge which is present between the front of the eyes

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appearing to join the eyes like a pair of spectacles, juveniles caimans areyellow in color with black spots and bands and the body and tail, as theymature they lose this yellow color and markings become less distinct andadults are dull olive-green, they are found in river banks and swamps. Ofthe eight living caiman species, the spectacled caimans are the most

widespread being distributed in the south and central America, parts ofthe Caribbean and has even been introduced into the united states (SouthFlorida) And the estimated wild populations is over 1.000.000 of caimans.

The black caiman is the biggest species in the family alligatoridaereaching up to 20 feet (6 meters) and 150-180 kg. They have black scalyskin and a bony ridge extending from over the eyes down to the snout,they also have gray or brown banding on the lower jaw, a narrow snoutand flat forehead, they are found in oxbow lakes, flooded forest as well aslarge river banks but, preferring quiet black water.

The biggest caimans in the area are found predominantly in the lakes,swamps rather than in the rivers, this is because lakes are much easierenvironment in which to live than rivers as there are not currents to battleagainst so, the biggest caiman probably push out the smaller ones fromthe lakes and the swamps into the rivers

About the breeding biology:T he black caiman become sexually mature at 4 years approximately and

the spectacled caiman at 4-7 years old, they mate in shallow water, blackcaiman nest in October through January and spectacled caiman in augustthrough November, thats why, if you hear a lot of splashing around in thewater, it may well be a caiman mating, after mating the male disappearsand this is the last he has to do with things, He leaves the females to raisethe hatchlings alone, then, the female will build the nest from 10 to 20meters away form the river which is 1.5 mt, wide and 0.80 cm high, andoften against a tree, then.The Black caiman will lay 30 to 60 eggs and spectacled caiman 14 to 40eggs which are around the sized like a ping- pong ball then, they willcover the nest with leaves and sticks, because the decomposition if thisvegetation helps to maintain the temperature of the nest, the incubation

period is from 5 to 6 weeks for black caiman and from 9 to 11 weeks forspectacled caiman,The interesting thing about the reproduction of caimans and in fact of allcrocodilians is that the sex of the hatchlings is not determined at the pointof conception as it is in most other animal. The important factor here isthe temperature at which the eggs are incubated. If the temperature is

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greater than 23 degrees the eggs will turn out to be males, if it is under23 degrees they will be females. So, the eggs on the top of the nest willbe males because they will be kept warm as they are close to the sun,and the eggs on the females because they will be kept cooler as they areinsulated from the sun.

But, scientists have found, the mother caimans actually regulate the sexratio. In areas with a lot of female caimans. They will dig shallower nests,thus