Black caiman
Melanosuchus niger
— Where the name comes from
Melanosuchus is “black crocodile”, from mélas and soûchos. That soûchos is not an ordinary Greek word: it is how the Greeks transcribed Sobek, the crocodile god of Egypt worshipped at Crocodilopolis, where the priests kept specimens wearing gold earrings. Inside the scientific name of an Amazonian reptile there survives the name of a deity of the Nile.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Crocodilians
- Habitat
- Rivers, oxbow lakes, flooded forest
- Range
- The Amazon basin
- Size
- 4–5 m, up to 6 m; 300–400 kg
- Diet
- Fish, capybaras, turtles, deer, other caimans
- Lifespan
- 50 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the largest predator in Amazonia and the largest living caiman.
- 02
It has enormous eyes and exceptional night vision.
- 03
Females guard the nest and carry the young in their mouths.
— What sets it apart
Between the 1940s and the 1970s millions were killed for their skins, and across much of Amazonia it nearly vanished. Then something unexpected was noticed: in the lakes without caimans, the fishing had got worse. These animals move up the rivers, feed and defecate in the still waters, and in doing so carry phosphorus and nitrogen from rich areas to poor ones, fertilising the bottom. Taking them out of the system had impoverished the water, and with it the fish the villages lived on.
