Paleosuchus trigonatus

Common names: Smooth-fronted caiman, Schneider’s smooth-fronted caiman, Cachirre, Jacaré coroa Range: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela Revised by Robert Godshalk

CITES: Appendix II
CSG Action Plan: Availability of Survey Data – Poor
Need for Wild Population Recovery – Low
Potential for Sustainable Management – Low
1996 IUCN Red List: Not Listed (LRlc Lower Risk, least concern. Widespread and remains locally abundant although quantitative data are lacking.)
Principal threats: Habitat destruction, local subsistence hunting.

Ecology and natural history

The smooth-fronted caiman is somewhat larger than the dwarf caiman, P. palpebrosus, with a maximum male length of ca. 2.3m; (Medem 1981). It has a similar distribution but does not enter the Brazilian shield region or the Paraguay River drainage. In Brazil, this species is found principally in rivers and streams of heavily forested habitats (Magnusson 1992b). In Venezuela, P. trigonatus is principally restricted to chemically poor rivers and streams of the Guayana Shield and western llanos (Godshalk 1982a, Gorzula and Paolillo 1986, Gorzula et al. 1988), and has been reported at elevations up to 1,300m. The habitat in Bolivia is similar to that reported in the P. palpebrosus account (King and Videz-Roca 1989).

Magnusson (1989) summarizes much of the published information on this species. Pritchard (1995) reports a specimen emerging from the sea onto a beach in Guyana, although the identification of the specimen may be in question (Ross et al. 1995). Ecological studies on this species by Magnusson and co-workers (Magnusson 1985, Magnusson et al. 1985, 1987) revealed that the diet is comprised to a large extent of terrestrial vertebrates. Egg laying apparently takes place at the end of the dry season and many of the mound nests are located adjacent to or on top of termite mounds, thereby maintaining a stable elevated nest temperature. The incubation period appears to be the longest of any crocodilian and is in excess of 100 days (Magnusson 1989).

Conservation and status

As with the dwarf caiman, surveys have mostly been conducted for other species of crocodilian throughout much of the range of this species. Owing to the limited potential for commercial exploitation, the smooth-fronted caiman has been hunted mostly on a subsistence basis and populations appear to remain healthy throughout the species’ range. Environmental pollution associated with gold mining in Venezuela and Brazil (and increasingly in Bolivia and Peru) appears to be having an increasingly negative impact the riverine ecosystems and is affecting this species and other crocodilians.

Because of the species’ small size and extensive ventral ossification, the commercial value of the hide of P. trigonatus is very low. The management of the smooth-fronted caiman is based principally on the protection of wild populations. Limited cropping is only allowed in Guyana, principally for the pet trade.

Priority projects

Moderate priority

Investigations of ecology and population biology: Although more is known about the behavior and ecology of this species than about the dwarf caiman, many aspects of the smooth-fronted caiman’s life history remain to be investigated. One of the important management related topics is to determine the effect of gold mining on populations of Paleosuchus.

Smooth-fronted caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus, Venezuela. Photo by R. Godshalk.