Another Night with the Caimans

Went out caimaning on the 21st last month, it’s my second night since coming back I’ve been out on the project a fair amount of times now, and I’d like to go out as much as possible from now on, try to see and hear and learn as much as I can. It was a pleasant night out, too, despite the rain. The guests were fun, and the crew was a good group. They had 6 guests, three from Germany plus their driver, then two guys from Italy who’d gone the night before and wanted to go again. The boys got a hold of Karanambu to borrow an extra boat, and so Kenneth and Oswin came down. They were in the Italians’ boat, then Anthony and Mike were in the Germans’ boat with me, and Roland, Felix, Shamir and Ram were in the catch boat.

The other night that I went with Jess, it was the first night that the crew had gone without Fernando or Mike, which was interesting. They did well; I’m proud of the crew for starting to do things their own, though last night was fun, too, to have Mike there because really feels like a thorough night out when he’s there; he’s full of data and info and opinions that the others haven’t picked up on yet. The Italian guys were a cheerful pair, full of jokes, and when we were floating downriver waiting for the catch boat to come, they teased that they were in the cool boat, they were “Lady Gaga.” We were pretty darn cool, too – Sybil, one of the ladies, was a spunky fun person, very pleasant to be around.

It was nice to be a part of the night, and to share what I’ve learned about my river/wilderness here. I called us the sassy boat, and then the smart boat, as the guys asked an easy question about the river. I sat next to the other lady, who seemed very glad to be experiencing the river, and semi knowledgeable about the outdoors – she didn’t want us to trouble any of the animals we saw, though. We saw some birds, including a jabiru stork, which are an amazing looking ginormous bird.

We saw an iguana and two amazon tree boas, all within grabbing range, though my seat-mate told Mike to leave them alone. Mike described to the guys who were inquisitive, about the growth of the boas, and how they’ll catch birds and bats out of the air and then constrict them. “They’ll catch them with their mouths?” one of the Italians asked. I wanted to sarcastically answer “Uh, YEAH.” But instead, I add: “And then, there’s this special Ninja Boa that will jump out of the tree and wrap itself around the bird in midair…” The guy looks at me and solemnly asks “Really?” I couldn’t keep a straight face and was pretty delighted that I fooled them. It was a lot of fun having people around to joke with.

The catch boat came upon a baby caiman, and so we pulled to the river bank and Mike talked about it – two years old, about, it’s still with its mother. Its colours are a lot more vibrant, and it’s black chin stripes/spots are still there. These spots fade as they mature. Felix said it was making a lot of noise when they caught it, calling to its mother, which they saw nearby, along with some other young ones of the same clutch. I’d never seen one that small, and I got to hold it, too, with what the guests thought was veteran experience. Beautiful. There’s a prehistoric grace and beauty to the caiman, and with this smaller one, an added strong innocence.

It started to rain, and we rode down the river in silence as it fell over us. Mike asked if the guests wanted to go on, as we hadn’t caught a proper caiman yet, or head back to dinner. He gave them the choice, but you could tell he was sorta hinting at going back, and my seat-mate and the man just said “Sure, ok….” Though when he asked Sybil, she said she was great and let’s keep going. And then they got a caiman. My seat-mate was a bit disturbed to see their corralling method, but Mike and I tried to explain how it’s necessary, not too disruptive and for a good cause. I mean, you have to tire out the caiman for it to be safe for you to work with them and you’re working with them in the first place to be able to understand and therefore protect the species, which is a keystone species in the area and not endangered but close to it.

After it tired, they take it to the bank across the river to do the measurements. I had fun talking with Anthony, and Oswin kept playing around with me as we watched Felix take the measurements, Shamir write them down, Mike explain the process to them all. It was a recapture, 576, caught last season. Anthony and I guessed at the weight of the caiman (though I had to guess in pounds, since I don’t follow kilos. We then had a sport of trying to convert the weight from kilos to pounds. It was 46 kilos, and Mike told us again that it’s 2.2 ratio, so I did half the math first and they said it was around 100, put after a tease to be accurate, I did the full math with Anthony following along with me – 101.2 pounds, which meant that my guess of 85 was under, and Anthony was pretty good by declaring it at least 100 pounds), I tried to sneak up on Oswin and startle him as he did me, and the Italians admitted I got them with the Ninja Boa story… all this banter as an 8 foot black caiman lay docile before us.

As it’s yet to become mundane to me even though I know the process, it was a great night spent with those who are quite experienced with the river as well as ones for whom it’s a new experience and are enjoying it.