Six Cuvier's Dwarf Caimans captively bred at MCBT
Chennai(PTI): In the first-ever captive breeding of endangered 'Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman' in South Asia, six eggs have hatched at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust.
Three dwarf caimans (Paleosuchus Palpebrosus), one of the five species of caiman found in South America, had been brought to the Crocodile Bank in 2001 from Denmark, trust authorities said on Thursday.
In mid-August this year, one of the females of the species laid 10 eggs. The eggs were carefully removed and placed in styrofoam box with sterlized sand in a heated room.
After an incubation period of 104 days, six tiny caimans hatched in the first week of December.
The babies are now kept in an enclosure to protect them from preying birds, trust officials said.
They will soon be feeding on snails, crabs, fingerling fish and mice.
The dwarf caiman, probably the smallest of all the 23 species of crocodiles, grows to a maximum size of about 1.7 metres and weigh about 30 grams.
They are largely found in the fast flowing rivers in the jungles of eastern Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador and Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.
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