In nutrition, the caiman is illegible and eats any available prey. Young caimans eat different types of aquatic invertebrates (insects, crustaceans, mollusks). Growing up, they switch mainly to vertebrates – fish, amphibians, reptiles and water birds. Large caimans are pretty serious opponents who are able to get even a wild pig. Worst of all, they live in a drought, when food is scarce. At this time, among the spectacle caimans, cannibalism occurs from water and remains almost unnoticed. Frequent stay in water is indicated by small membranes between the fingers.
By the way, on the forelimbs of the beast there are four fingers, and on the back – three. Each finger ends with a claw, which looks like a small hoof. The animal’s wool is tough, like a wire, brittle, covered with fat – just the kind with which water quickly flows, just as the capybara gets out on land.
Female caimans become sexually mature at the age of 4-7 years with a body length of 1.2 m. Males reach maturity also at the age of 4 to 7 years, but they are by that time already much larger and can reach a length of 1.5-1.6 m The hierarchy is highly developed in the populations of the caimans, and the social status of the individual individual largely depends on the rate of growth and readiness for reproduction. Males of low rank grow more slowly, due to stress, and often do not enter into the process of reproduction.
