Crocodilian
Biology and Conservation
Although most of my
research as been with Squamata
reptiles, being a herpetologist in Venezuela
involves being
somewhat of a generalist. There are
way too many herps and very few herpetologist.
During my field work in the llanos, I have spend considerable time with croc
biologist and due to my draw towards large reptiles I have ended up helping in
collaborating with them quite a bit.
Back in 1990 I was among
the people that participated on the first reintroduction of Orinoco crocodiles
in the the wild as an effort revocer
their populations and later in 1998, while I was looking for anacondas with a
filming crew from England, we were lucky enough to find the first two clutches
of the reintroduced animals in the wild. Later on, my follow up of other
animals reintroduced in other places gave me enough 
information to assess the age at first
reproduction of these wonderful reptiles.
On 1999 I started teaching
a course of Tropical Ecology for Boston
University (click here to see some of the students)
that allowed me to travel throughout Ecuador and visit many of its wonderful
natural areas. One of which is dead in the midle
of a very pristine rainforest in the basin of the Napo River, Tiputini Biodiversity Station. While looking for a
black water lagoon that a friend suspected was around, we ran into a nest of
dwarf caimans (Paleosuchus trigonatus). This findings
gave me the opportuinty channel the interest of some
of my students on collecting good data on the natural history of these very
unknown species that so far has produced two interesting contributions on their
nesting habits and the time
budget of the babies. While were were there
we also studied the diet, habitat use of dwarf caimans as well as how the
overlap niche with spectacled caimans.
Publications on Crocodilian biology
White, J. M. and J. A. Rivas. 2004. Paleosuchus trigonatus (Dwarf Caiman) Neonate time budget. Herpetological Review �(click here for pdf)
Rivas, J. A., Aktay, S. A. and R. Y. Owens. 2001 Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider�s Smooth-fronted Caiman): Nesting and hatching Herpetological Review. 32: 251. (PDF file)
� Jesus A. Rivas. All rigths reserved