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The yacare caiman ( Caiman yacare), also known Common name as the jacare caiman, Paraguayan caiman, piranha caiman, red caiman, and southern spectacled caiman, is a species of caiman, a in the family Alligatoridae. The species is indigenous to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Brown in color and covered with dark blotches, males grow to a total length (including tail) of and weigh around ; while females grow to long and about . Typical habitats of this caiman include lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Its diet primarily consists of aquatic animals, such as snails, and occasionally land vertebrates. Mating occurs in the rainy season and eggs hatch in March, with young fending for themselves as soon as they hatch. The yacare caiman was hunted heavily for its skin to use for leather in the 1980s, which caused its population to decrease significantly. However, trading restrictions placed since have caused its population to increase. Its population in the Pantanal is about 10 million, and it is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.
The yacare caiman is one of three extant taxon (living) species of the genus Caiman, the other two being the Spectacled caiman ( Caiman crocodilus) and the Broad-snouted caiman ( Caiman latirostris). There are also several extinct fossil species in the genus Caiman, possibly up to eight species. The yacare caiman is a member of the caiman subfamily Caimaninae, and is one of six living species of caiman.
As of 2010, the exact relationship between the yacare caiman and related species is unclear and complicated. There have been attempts to analyze this relationship, but these have not produced definite conclusions. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the spectacled caiman ( Caiman crocodilus), which would make its scientific name Caiman crocodilus yacare. These two species are the same morphologically, but are considered separate species due to their geographical differences. Its relationship to the spectacled caiman and the other extant caimans can be shown in the cladogram below, based on molecular DNA-based phylogenetic studies:
Dark marks are distributed across the body; most noticeably, its lower jaw is covered with three to five blotches. It has a smooth snout, which is medium in length and broad. It has lumps on its eyelids and a curved ridge between its eyes. It has on its scales, a feature also present in the spectacled caiman. It has an average of 74 teeth, with 5 pre-maxillary, 14–15 maxillary, and 17–21 mandibular. Some of the teeth on its lower jaw can poke through holes in its upper jaw. This feature makes its teeth more prominent and has been compared to , which has established the common name "piranha caiman".
Breeding usually occurs in December–February, in the middle of the rainy season. Nests are constructed by the females, built in a mound shape using mud and rotting vegetation. The species can lay as many as 44 eggs, but it most commonly lays 22–35, with the exact number often depending on the habitat type. It often exhibits multiple paternity, more so than several other crocodilian species. Females usually protect nests during incubation, but do so less when the human hunting pressure is high, ultimately causing a lower hatching success rate. Eggs hatch in March. Young exhibit precociality, receiving very little help from their parents and having to care for themselves. They hide in grasses in the daytime, as and can eat young caimans. Females become sexually mature at age 10–15. Similar species of the yacare caiman live to about age 50, which has been used as an estimate for this caiman's lifespan, but its exact lifespan is unknown.
In the 1980s, the species was "heading for oblivion" due to frequently being hunted for its skin; hunters often went to water holes containing many yacare caimans and shot large numbers of them. They utilized the skin for leather and left the other parts of the carcasses at the water holes. Although the species is covered with bony , which had previously made it uncommon to be hunted for leather, it has some less bony spots which can be used for leather. This practice caused the caiman's population to drop by the millions. In 1992, a ban was issued in Brazil that prohibited the trading of crocodilian skins. This resulted in a significant increase in its population, with about 10 million specimens living in the Pantanal alone as of 2013. Current threats of the yacare caiman include deforestation, tourism, construction of dams and seaports, and illegal hunting. The species reproduces quickly, which makes it less susceptible to hunting pressure.
The IUCN Red List designated the yacare caiman a species of least concern in 1996. It is listed as threatened by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as of June 5, 2000, after having been listed as endangered since June 2, 1970. As of 2010, it is listed as an Appendix II species by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
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