CAYMANS 
BLACK CAYMAN 
In the dry season, the voracious black cayman (jacare-assu ), largest and 
fiercest of the seven species of caymans, slips down into the jungle-lined 
rivers of northern South America. There it feasts on fishes, river turtles and 
mammals which come down to the river to drink. 
When these sources of supply are closed, and not even such a deli¬ 
cacy as an unwary human being is at hand, male caymans will not hesitate 
to devour their young. But the females, perhaps inspired by motherly love, 
encircle their offspring to protect them from the cannibalistic fathers. It 
is said that the females will fight desperately against the attackers and 
sometimes will carry off the baby caymans in cat fashion, hiding them in 
secluded pools until they are old enough to shift for themselves. 
The females lay from thirty to forty eggs in a reed-lined hole on the 
riverbank. Full grown, the average black cayman measures thirteen feet. 
Record specimens have attained a length of twenty feet. They are evenly 
scaled, black above and yellow beneath. They have a broad, short skull 
similar to that of alligators. 
When the rainy season returns, the black caymans desert the river 
and migrate to the flooded forests. They can be found from the Amazon 
basin to eastern Ecuador and Peru. 
South American natives fear these reptilian neighbors, but they seize 
every opportunity to capture them. The cayman’s skin is exported for the 
manufacture of leather goods, and the flesh is greatly relished by local 
gourmets. The eggs, too, are considered a tasty dish. 
In many Brazilian river villages, the cautious natives build a stockade 
in the water to protect swimmers.' 
CENTRAL AMERICAN CAYMAN 
Farther north from Panama to Colombia, is the range of the Central 
American cayman, known locally as the babilla. About four feet long, it 
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