 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2013) |
| Northern caiman lizard | |
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| at the Prague Zoo | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Teiidae |
| Genus: | Dracaena |
| Species: | D. guianensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Dracaena guianensis Daudin, 1802 | |
The northern caiman lizard (Dracaena guianensis) is a species of lizard found in northern South America.
The northern caiman lizard is built similarly to its cousin the tegu, with a large heavy set body and short but powerful limbs. Its head is bulky and often a red or orange color. Their jaws are heavily muscular to help aid in eating its normal prey of snails, crawfish and fresh water clams. It also has a few adaptations that help it in its watery habitat. It has a long and flattened tail, similar to its namesake, the caiman. The long tail helps the northern caiman lizard to successfully swim and dive. A clear third eyelid is thought to act like a pair of goggles underwater.
The body of the northern caiman lizard is very similar to that of a crocodile. It is typically a bright green with slight dark green banding. There are horned raised scales along the dorsal of the back. This helps to provide some protection against predators.
These lizards can reach up to 4 ft (1.2 m) long and weigh up to 10 lb (4.5 kg).
D. guianensis can be found in the south American countries of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the Guianas. It lives in swampy habitats and other wooded areas which are flooded. It is mostly aquatic and is an excellent climber. It spends most of its time basking on branches overhanging waterways such that it may be able to flee from predation by disappearing underwater.
The lizard's wild population number is unknown. There has yet to be a study on them in their natural habitat. Much of what we know about them comes from captive animals in zoos and aquariums, as well as in the homes of hobbyists.
This species was heavily hunted for their hides. In 1970 they were provided protection and the export of their skin dropped. Now local populations are safe where their habitat is protected. Captive farms have since been set up to provide animals for the leather trade. In recent years a number of these animals have found themselves in the pet trade.
The northern caiman lizard spends most of its time in or near water. At night, it hides in trees and bushes. Caiman lizards in the wild will take a variety of prey: snails, fish, amphibians, crabs, crawfish, clams, invertebrates, eggs and other freshwater inhabitants all can make up a caiman lizards diet. [3] [4] However they do specialize in snails. It takes the snail in the jaws, raises its head up so that the prey will slide into the back of the mouth, then crushes it with its back teeth. It then spits out the pieces of shell. The lizard has been known to even kill and eat Amazon river turtles by crushing the shell by the edges and eating the softer parts chunk after chunk. It will occasionally hunt rodents. [5] It has also been known to burrow like its cousin the tegu.
The northern caiman lizard has been hard to keep in captivity. Due to their natural diet consisting almost purely of snails, most wild caught adults will refuse to eat anything else. Some zoos and aquariums have had success in keeping and breeding them.
In the last five years, farmed baby northern caiman lizards from South America have made their way into the pet trade around the world. These hatchlings are more willing to accept other food sources. Even so, many owners find it highly useful to have a local source of escargot or even a variety of snails, with some reporting to have luck at Asian supermarkets.
The caiman lizard is not a reptile which, by any means, is easy to keep or raise in captivity; despite any docility, they still have strong jaws that are capable of delivering painful bites. Their aquatic lifestyle means that they need a large, filtered pool within their enclosure, as well as adequate places to dig and burrow. They also require logs, rocks or other suitable material with smooth surfaces to bask on. They require a high basking temperature at one end of the enclosure, with the other being a cooler side. Most lizards are provided, usually, with two lightbulbs—one for UVB rays, necessary for adequate vitamin D metabolization, and the other for ambient heat. Since many reptiles are prone to metabolic bone disease (MBD), proper calcium in their diets is essential along with the UVB exposure. Natural light is also acceptable, if an enclosure can be provided outdoors or near a bright window. The best setup for the caiman lizard is something akin to a large paludarium or riparium enclosure, with adequate land and water space. Beyond the fact that these lizards can grow to be fairly large—up to 4 feet in length—a large enclosure is mandatory to successfully keep them alive.
That being said, some owners claim there is a reward to keeping them; caiman lizards are intelligent, as can be observed in the way in which they approach a snail clinging to rocks, for example. They can solve problems which many other lizards apparently fail to, and can generally recognize their owners, given they have been socialised for the right amount of time and are cared for under excellent conditions.
Captive diet includes turkey meat (often mixed with Mazuri alligator diet), mussels, clam meat, catfood, fish and some fruits.
The zoo in Basel, Switzerland is reported to have successfully bred northern caiman lizards in early 2023.
Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes, encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The grouping is paraphyletic as some lizards are more closely related to snakes than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon.
Crocodilia is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles known as crocodilians. They first appeared 94 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period and are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the order's total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and diversified during the Mesozoic era. The order Crocodilia includes the true crocodiles, the alligators and caimans, and the gharial and false gharial. Although the term crocodiles is sometimes used to refer to all of these, crocodilians is a less ambiguous vernacular term for members of this group.
Pogona is a genus of reptiles containing eight lizard species, which are often known by the common name bearded dragons. The name "bearded dragon" refers to the underside of the throat of the lizard, which can turn black and become inflated for a number of reasons, most often as a result of stress, if they feel threatened, or are trying to entice a mate. They are a semiarboreal species, spending significant amounts of time on branches, in bushes, and near human habitation. Pogona species bask on rocks and exposed branches in the mornings and afternoons and sleep at night, making them a diurnal species. Their diet consists primarily of vegetation and some insects. They are found throughout much of Australia and inhabit environments such as deserts, and shrublands.
The genus Dracaena, also called caiman lizards or water tegus, is in the teiid family, along with tegus and ameivas. Caiman lizards are found in South America in Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil. These semiaquatic lizards spend a lot of time in the water and inhabit marshes, streams and flooded forests. Caiman lizards often bask on branches overhanging the water.
The yacare caiman, also known commonly as the jacare caiman, Paraguayan caiman, piranha caiman, red caiman, and southern spectacled caiman, is a species of caiman, a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae. The species is endemic to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Brown in color and covered with dark blotches, males grow to a total length of 2–3 m and weigh around 40–50 kg (88–110 lb); while females grow to 1.4 m long and about 15–20 kg (33–44 lb). Typical habitats of this caiman include lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Its diet primarily consists of aquatic animals, such as snails, and occasionally land vertebrates. Mating occurs in the rainy season and eggs hatch in March, with young fending for themselves as soon as they hatch. The yacare caiman was hunted heavily for its skin to use for leather in the 1980s, which caused its population to decrease significantly. However, trading restrictions placed since have caused its population to increase. Its population in the Pantanal is about 10 million, and it is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.
The Sudan plated lizard, also known as the western plated lizard, great plated lizard, or Broadley's rough-scaled plated lizard, is a medium-sized, diurnal African lizard.
The black caiman is a crocodilian reptile endemic to South America. With a maximum length of around 5 to 6 m and a mass of over 450 kg (1,000 lb), it is the largest living species of the family Alligatoridae, and the third-largest crocodilian in the Neotropical realm. True to its common and scientific names, the black caiman has a dark greenish-black coloration as an adult. In some individuals, the pigmentation can appear almost jet-black. It has grey to brown banding on the lower jaw; juveniles have a more vibrant coloration compared to adults, with prominent white-pale yellow banding on the flanks that remains present well into adulthood. The banding on young animals helps with camouflage by breaking up their body outline, on land or in water, in an effort to avoid predation. The morphology is quite different from other caimans but the bony ridge that occurs in other caimans is present. The head is large and heavy, an advantage in catching larger prey. Like all crocodilians, caimans are long, squat creatures, with big jaws, long tails and short legs. They have thick, scaled skin, and their eyes and noses are located on the tops of their heads. This enables them to see and breathe while the rest of their bodies are underwater.
The broad-snouted caiman is a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae found in eastern and central South America, including southeastern Brazil, northern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. It is the second largest caiman and the third largest alligatorid. It is found mostly in freshwater marshes, swamps, and mangroves, usually in still or very slow-moving waters. It will often use man-made cow ponds.
The Orinoco crocodile is a critically endangered crocodile. Its population is very small, and they can only be found in the Orinoco river basin in Venezuela and Colombia. Extensively hunted for their skins in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is one of the most endangered species of crocodiles. It is a very large species of crocodilian; males have been reported up to 6.8 m in the past, weighing over 900 kg (2,000 lb), but such sizes do not exist today, 5.2 m being a more widely accepted maximum size. A large male today may attain 4.2 m in length and can weigh up to 450 kg (1,000 lb), while females are substantially smaller with the largest likely to weigh around 225 kg (496 lb). Sexual dimorphism is not as profound as in other crocodilian species. The coloration is light even in adults.
The Tiliqua scincoides scincoides, or eastern blue-tongued lizard, is native to Australia. Its blue tongue can be used to warn off predators. In addition to flashing its blue tongue, the skink hisses and puffs up its chest to assert dominance and appear bigger when in the presence of its predators such as large snakes and birds. The eastern blue tongue is ovoviviparous and precocial, meaning that its young are more developed and advanced at their time of birth. The Tiliqua scincoides scincoides is not venomous to humans and can be found in suburban and urban areas, specifically in house gardens.
The savannah monitor is a medium-sized species of monitor lizard native to Africa. The species is known as Bosc's monitor in Europe, since French scientist Louis Bosc first described the species. It belongs to the subgenus Polydaedalus.
Graptemys is a genus of freshwater turtles containing 14 species, commonly known as map turtles. Graptemys are small to medium-sized turtles that are significantly sexually dimorphic, with females in some species attaining as much as twice the length and ten times the mass as males. Depending on the species, adult males range from 7–16 cm (2.75–6.25 in), adult females 10–29.5 cm (4–11.62 in), and hatchlings 2.5–3.8 cm (1–1.5 in), although some sources indicate female Barbour's map turtles grow to 33 cm (13 in) in length. Most species have a distinctive dark pigmented keel that is often notched or serrated running down the center of the carapace and serrated scutes on the rear margin. The head, neck, and limbs exhibit bold patterns of yellow lines and spots against darker green, olive, or black base colors. The patterns on the head can be important characters in identifying the various species. The common name "map turtle" is derived from the intricate patterns on their shells that are suggestive of topographical maps, although the patterns are more apparent in some species than others, and often become obscure in older specimens. Some species are occasionally called "sawbacks", in reference to the serrated keels on their shell.
The Argentine black and white tegu, also known as the Argentine giant tegu, the black and white tegu, or the huge tegu, is a species of lizard in the family Teiidae. The species is the largest of the "tegu lizards". It is an omnivorous species which inhabits the tropical rain forests, savannas and semi-deserts of eastern and central South America.
The spiny-tailed monitor, also known as the Australian spiny-tailed monitor, the ridge-tailed monitor the Ackie dwarf monitor, and colloquially simply ackie monitor, is an Australian species of lizard belonging to the genus of monitor lizards (Varanus).
The spectacled caiman, also known as the white caiman, common caiman, and speckled caiman, is a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae. It is brownish-, greenish-, or yellowish-gray colored and has a spectacle-like ridge between its eyes, which is where its common name come from. It grows to a length of 1.4–2.5 m and a weight of 7–40 kg (15–88 lb), with males being both longer and heavier than females. Its diet varies seasonally, commonly consisting of crabs, fish, small mammals, amphibians and snails. Breeding occurs from May to August and 14–40 eggs are laid in July and August. This crocodilian has a large range and population; it is native to much of Latin America, and has been introduced to the United States, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
Mitchell's water monitor is a semiaquatic species of monitor lizard in the family Varanidae. The species is native to Australia. The species is native to the Northern regions of Australia, and is on IUCN's Red List as a critically endangered species. They can be distinguished by the orange or yellow stripes along their neck and dark spots along their back. They are mainly carnivorous, and eat small prey such as lizard, birds, and insects.
Tegu is a common name of a number of species of lizards that belong to the families Teiidae and Gymnophthalmidae. Tegus are native to Central and South America. They occupy a variety of habitats and are known for their large size and predatory habits.
Salvator is a genus of lizards known as tegus which belong to the family Teiidae.
Paradracaena is an extinct genus of lizards from northern South America. Fossils of Paradracaena colombiana have been found in the Honda Group of Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The species was described as a member of the tegus; Tupinambis huilensis by Estes in 1961.
Dracaena paraguayensis, the Paraguay caiman lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Teiidae. It is found in Northern Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia.
Media related to Dracaena guianensis at Wikimedia Commons