The black caiman is a reptile in the alligator family. As of November 2026, it is the largest kind of caiman. It lives in the Amazon, a huge river area in South America. There it makes its home in slow rivers, lakes and flooded land. Its skin is dark.

A black caiman can grow longer than 4 metres. The biggest old males can be longer than 5 metres. Old males can also weigh more than 400 kilograms. A metre is a unit of length. A kilogram is a unit of weight. As of November 2026, no other caiman is bigger than this reptile.

In the dry season, a mother black caiman builds a mound nest for her eggs. A mound is a pile of earth. A nest holds about 40 eggs. The eggs take about two to three months to hatch. All that time, the mother stays close to her nest.

The eggs often hatch when the rainy season begins. When they are ready, the mother opens the nest. Baby black caimans stay together in groups. A young caiman eats insects and other small animals. As it grows, it eats bigger prey, such as fish. Prey is an animal that a hunter eats. The babies grow up in slow rivers and lakes.

A grown black caiman is among the biggest predators in its part of the Amazon. A predator is an animal that hunts other animals. It often hunts at night. It eats fish, such as piranhas and catfish. It may even eat animals as big as a capybara. A capybara is a big rodent. Adult black caimans make loud, rumbling sounds. Other black caimans can hear them.

People hunted black caimans for their skins, which make shiny black leather. Hunting cut the number of black caimans by about 99 percent in the 20th century. That is an estimate, which means a careful guess and not an exact count. Black caimans live in slow rivers, lakes and flooded land in the Amazon.

Words to know

• predator: animal hunter
• rodent: gnawing animal
• mound: pile of earth
• estimate: careful guess

The short version

The black caiman is a reptile of the Amazon. As of November 2026, it is the largest kind of caiman. It lives in slow rivers, lakes and flooded land, often hunts at night, and eats fish such as piranhas and catfish.

Quick facts

• Old male black caimans can weigh more than 400 kilograms and be longer than 5 metres.
• A mother builds a mound nest of about 40 eggs in the dry season.
• The eggs take about two to three months to hatch.
• Hunting cut the number of black caimans by about 99 percent in the 20th century, as an estimate.