The black caiman, Melanosuchus niger, is a large crocodilian. It is a carnivorous reptile that lives along slow-moving rivers and lakes, in the seasonally flooded savannas of the Amazon basin, and in other freshwater habitats in South America. Once common, it was hunted to near extinction primarily for its commercially valuable hide. It is now listed as Conservation Dependent. Overall, a little known species, it was not researched in any detail until the 1980s, when the leather-trade had already taken its toll.
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Famous quotes containing the word black:
“Some burn damp faggots, others may consume
The entire combustible world in one small room
As though dried straw, and if we turn about
The bare chimney is gone black out
Because the work had finished in that flare.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)