Black Caiman

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Black Caiman

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Alligatoridae
Genus: Melanosuchus
Species: M. niger
Binomial name
Melanosuchus niger
Spix, 1825

The black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is a crocodilian. It is a carnivorous reptile that lives along slow-moving rivers and lakes, in the seasonally flooded savannas of the Amazon basin, and in other freshwater habitats in South America. Once common, it was hunted to near extinction primarily for its commercially valuable hide. It is now listed as Conservation Dependent.[1]

Contents

Appearance

The black caiman has a bony ridge over red eyes, and black, scaly skin. The skin coloration helps with camouflage during its nocturnal hunts, but may also help absorb heat (See thermoregulation).

Size

The black caiman is one of the largest reptiles. The black caiman can grow to 5 m (16.5 ft) long, making it the largest member of the Alligator family and the largest predator in the Amazon basin. The largest reported black caiman, measuring 7.7 meters (25.2 ft) and weighing 1,310 kg (2,870 lb), was shot in Acre, Brazil in 1965 and, which if accurate, would count as the largest crocodilian recorded besides saltwater crocodiles. Most adult black caimans are 3 to 4.26 meters (10-14 feet), with old males rarely growing larger than 5 meters (16.5 ft)

Diet

They eat fish, including piranhas, catfish, and other animals, including birds, turtles, and land-dwelling animals like the capybara and deer when they come to the water to get a drink. Larger specimens can take tapirs, and sometimes anacondas and jaguars. Conversely, jaguars may prey on caimans and these two large predators are each is likely to avoid large adults of the other species. Their teeth are designed to grab but not rip, so they swallow their food whole after drowning it. Immature specimens eat crustaceans and insects. Their main predator is humans, who hunt them for leather or meat. In return, black caimans are known to catch and eat humans as well.

They were also mentioned in Matthew Reilly's best selling book "Temple", where they are constantly eating people that fall in the water.

Reproduction

In December, females build a nest of soil and vegetation, which is about 1.5 meters (5 ft) across and 0.75 meters wide (2.5 ft). They lay from 50 to 60 eggs, which hatch in about six weeks. They sometimes eat their young. It has been shown that these animals frequently remove their young from the nest,in their mouths [thus the belief of some, they eat their young] at hatching, and transport them to a 'holding pool' area. The mother will even assist hatchlings to break out of their eggs,[they 'squeak' inside the egg, which the mother hears] which are tough and leathery, by chewing the egg to break it open for the young to emerge. The mother will look after her young for several months. The female black caiman only breeds once every 2 to 3 years.


References

  1. ^ Ross (2000). Melanosuchus niger. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 5 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is Conservation Dependent.

External links

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