Diet
Immature specimens eat crustaceans and insects but quickly graduate to eating fish, including piranhas, catfish, and perch, which remain the primary food source for all black caiman. Various prey will be taken by opportunity, includes turtles, birds and mammals, the latter two mainly when they come to drink at the river banks. Larger specimens can take virtually any South American terrestrial or riparian animals unfortunate enough to encounter them. Large prey can include tapirs, anacondas, deer, giant otters, capybara and domestic animals including pigs, cattle, horses and dogs. Compared to the smaller caiman species, the Black caiman more often hunts terrestrially at night, using its acute hearing and sight. As with all crocodilian species, their teeth are designed to grab but not chew, so they generally try to swallow their food whole after drowning it. Large prey that cannot be swallowed whole are often stored so the flesh will rot enough to allow the caiman take bites out of the flesh.
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