Similar to other large crocodilians, black caimans have even been observed catching and eating smaller species, such as the spectacled caiman and sometimes cannibalizing smaller individuals of their own kind. Black caimans are apex predators. They can get quite territorial over their mates, nests and eggs. It’s part of the caiman species, and it’s covered in black scales. Victims range in age from 5 to 60. 21. Hatchlings mostly eat small fish, frogs, and invertebrates such as crustaceans and insects, but with time and size graduate to eating larger fish, including piranhas, catfish, and perch, which remain a significant food source for all black caimans. These are giant otters which are social and are obligate aquatic foragers and piscivorans, green anacondas which are slow, infrequent feeders mostly on medium-sized mammals and reptiles, and jaguars, which are the most terrestrial of these and focus their diet mainly on relatively larger mammals and reptiles. It might have something to do with the large size of their nests. Male black caimans may mate with several females in one season. The head is large and heavy, an advantage in catching larger prey. Like humans, caimans have an overbite that allows their jaws to comfortably close because their upper teeth slide in front of their lower ones. Caimans have rounded, U-shaped snouts while crocodiles have sharper and more V-shaped ones. Living in Ecuador: All About Life in Ecuador (Cuenca, Salinas, Quito, Loja, etc), 32 Ecuador Expats Talk About Living in Ecuador, What is Ecuador’s Weather? This enables them to see and breathe while the rest of their bodies are underwater. Large anacondas may take an occasional young caiman of this species. This is another area where we don’t have a lot of information, but it’s assumed that black caimans reach sexual maturity between 5 – 15 years old. They can rip a chunk of flesh from a dead animal, but it has to be a chunk that they can swallow whole. Although the snout is relatively narrow, the skull (given the species' considerably larger size) is much larger overall than other caimans. Thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador. A lo largo de región se encuentran varias como la cascada de San Rafael, con una altura de 150 metros y 14 metros de ancho, es la más alta y espectacular de todo el Ecuador. How big is a black caiman? 33. They’re easily the biggest species in the caiman family, and it’s possible that they’re the biggest species in the entire Amazon basin. It takes about two months for the eggs to hatch. ¿Qué animales sacan de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana? En 1994 se tuvieron 147 registros de este animal y solo 63 en 2011. [13][14][15] A relatively small adult male of a total length of 3.4 m (11 ft 2 in) weighed 98 kg (216 lb) while an adult male considered fairly large at a length of 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in) weighed approximately 350 kg (770 lb). Ecuador travel: There are so many places to see in Ecuador. & Thorbjarnarson, J.B. (2011). Sideleau B, Britton ARC (2012). It’s a little like humans growing gray hair: Juveniles have vivid bands whereas older males and females have faded ones. What is the habitat of the black caiman? These pods may contain individuals from other nests. Photographers have seen the occasional jaguar take them down, and an entire family of giant otters was seen working together to kill a black caiman that swam into their territory. Another difference can be found in their teeth. 34. Producido por Robin Foster y Tyana Wachter, con el apoyo del Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Other black caimans might eat a baby, however. In some individuals, the dark coloration can appear almost black. 26. They have a remarkably varied diet that includes monkeys, boars, birds, otters, armadillos, horses, deer, cattle and all kinds of fish and vermin. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. According to the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, black caimans can live for 13.1 years in captivity. 23. The first captive breeding outside its native range was at Aalborg Zoo in 2013.[38]. Once they catch their victim, they usually crush or drown it. [8] It is well documented that, as with other crocodilians, caimans frequently move their young from the nest in their mouths after hatching (whence the erroneous belief that they eat their young), and transport them to a safe pool. The trade in black caiman leather peaked from the 1950s to 1970s, when the smaller but much more common spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) became the more commonly hunted species. The Black Caiman, Welcome To The Official Mark O'Shea Website, Central African slender-snouted crocodile (, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_caiman&oldid=987717569, IUCN Red List conservation dependent species, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 8 November 2020, at 20:35.