RANGE:
Amazon and other river basins of northern South America.
HABITAT:
Dense rainforests near water.
DIET:
Wild - Large aquatic invertebrates, frogs, fish, birds, mammals.
Zoo - Fish, chicken, and meat diets
DESCRIPTION:
- This caiman has a short, deep snout.
- It is dark brown with indistinct darker spots and blotches.
- The lips are mottled with whitish and the eyes are reddish brown.
- There is no curved ridge of bone (spectacle) connecting the fronts of the eyes as in common caimans.
- The skin is extremely heavily armored with bony plates in the scales.
FACTS:
- Dwarf Caimans are solitary, living in water-filled burrows in banks of small rainforest streams and lakes and can tolerate low temperatures.
- The skin is so filled with bony plates that it is of little value in the hide trade.
- This genus of caimans often is called the smooth-fronted caimans because of the lack of the spectacle.
YOUNG:
- Females build a nest mound of leaves and mud in a shaded area away from the sun.
- They lay 20 to 25 eggs that hatch in about 3 months.
- The young have stronger patterns than adults and have a bright golden brown area behind the eye.
STATUS:
CITES App. II; uncommon in the wild
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