Fish Dinner

Jacare Caiman, Rio Pixaim, Pantanal, Brazil

WARNING. This post is a little gruesome. You’re going to watch a caiman – a cousin to a crocodile – munch down quite a large fish. If you’re easily upset by some of nature’s more gory aspects, skip this blog post.

Caiman, carnivorous amphibians related to alligators, are native to the streams, rivers and lakes of Central and South America. Across three genera, there are six species. One of those species, perhaps the most common species in Brazil’s Pantanal, is the Jacare Caiman, formerly the Southern Spectacled Caiman. It’s a mid-sized caiman, about 6 – 9 feet long.

Jacare Caiman coming ashore; look carefully and you can see a fish tail protruding from the far side of the caiman’s jaws.

On the riverbank, and away from other Caiman, the prey is clearly visible, a 2.5-3.0 foot long fish, possibly a Pintado, a species of catfish

Catfish have spines in the fins on their back. From the caiman’s reaction, the spines had just jabbed the roof of the caiman’s mouth

The caiman repositioned the fish by throwing it in the air. Note the stab wound in the roof of the caiman’s mouth, likely from the catfish’s spines

The caiman bites hard on the repositioned fish. Note the fish’s dorsal fin is pointed away and outside of the caiman’s mouth. We could hear bones crunching clear out in our boat.

And that was that. The fish went down the hatch and the caiman returned to the water. It was a very impressive performance. WC had fish for supper that night, too. Cooked fish.

WC will be off-grid for a few days, starting tomorrow. Posts are pre-written and will go up, but comments and emails may not be managed for a while.