The Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is the largest South American crocodile and the Amazon’s biggest predator. But despite its size and power it can be hunted with ease and the species has been
reduced in numbers by 99% over the last century.

The wild population is estimated to be between 25,000 and 50,000 and is restricted to slow-moving rivers, streams and lakes in rainforests and seasonally flooded savannas in the Amazon basin. It is now considered to be dependent on human conservation initiatives and occurs in the CTF UK supported reserves at Jatun Sacha in Eastern Ecuador and at Uwasu in Central Brazil.

Black Caiman, which can grow up to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, swim very well, mainly using their tails to propel themselves through the water. They are supremely adapted to aquatic life with eyes and nostrils at the top of the head. Mostly active at night, they hunt for fish, including piranhas and catfish, birds and turtles and even the largest Amazonian land animals like capybaras. Some 75 long, sharp conical teeth are used for catching prey – but not tearing it apart. They swallow their victims whole!

Females build a huge mound nest of soil and vegetation about 5 feet across and lay 50–60 eggs in each clutch. While the eggs are incubating, the females guard the nest and are dangerously aggressive at this time. The sex of the Black Caiman offspring is determined by the temperature in the nest rather than by genetics.

Black Caimans are found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana and Peru with unconfirmed reports from Venezuela. In reserves where it has substantial protection, most populations appear to recover well from previous heavy hunting pressure.

Thanks to Tom Snyder for the Caiman image

Your donations closing critical rainforest gaps at Jatun Sacha. The fabulous Jatun Sacha Biological Station sits on the fringes of Amazonian Ecuador and is still being consolidated nineteen years after the first tracts of rainforest were preserved.

The 7,500 acre forest, designated in the early 1990′s as the Second World Children’s Rainforest reserve, is situated in the narrow Tropical Wet Forest Life Zone of Eastern Ecuador, where the Eastern slopes of the Andes merge into the vastness of the Amazon basin. With the help of your donations, another piece has just been fitted into this exotic jigsaw puzzle – 60 hectares (approx. 150 acres) of forest, marked on our map as Douglas Clarke’s tract.

This strip of forest has its feet on the banks of the Arajuno River, in the upper Napo River watershed, which exhibits some of the highest biodiversity counts in the world. Adjacent to Douglas Clarke’s tract is a plot of rainforest where over 246 tree species have been identified in a 1 hectare (2.5 acre) area. The Jatun Sacha Reserve count has now reached 535 bird species (more than 1 in 20 of all the species in the world!) and an astonishing 850 butterfly species. And 2,000 fungi species have been found along a one kilometre transect.

Jaguars and Mountain Lions 95 per cent of the Douglas Clarke tract is primary forest and the remainder is secondary forest of various ages. It will provide additional space for all animals, birds and other organisms that receive pressure from the road on the Northern side of the Jatun Sacha Reserve along the Napo River. It also provides important habitat for jaguars and mountain lions that occasionally cross the Arajuno River to the Jatun Sacha side for hunting.

ECUADOR

It fills an important gap on the back side of the Reserve where some of the highest quality, most diverse forest is found – and, as is clear from the map, it connects significant blocks of forest along the banks of the Arajuno River. The purchase also removes a dangerous threat to the most sensitive part of the Jatun Sacha forest.

Because of the previous owner’s eco-tourism interests, he was in partnership with the local provincial works commissioner to construct a road to his block of forest through the Jatun Sacha Reserve. Indeed, the Jatun Sacha Foundation recently had to fight the two partners all the way to the Ecuadorian Supreme Court to stop the planned road – an expensive legal fight which the Foundation eventually won.

On a broader front, the 19-year development of the Jatun Sacha Biological Station has had a very positive effect in the area, as numerous local Non-Government Organisations have developed their own private reserve initiatives along the Jatun Sacha peninsula, starting projects based on the Jatun Sacha model.

Photo credit Tambako the Jaguar