We were a couple of nights into our Peruvian Amazon tour and the group, 10 field-herpers including me, had decided that this would be a good night to try to see a caiman or two.



We all piled excitedly into the Amazon equivalent of a John-boat and were, with our Peruvian guide, motoring slowly into a quiet oxbow that was outlined with overhanging shrubs and had great patches of emergent vegetation protruding from the shallows. Flashlight beams probed the darkness, each hoping that it would be their beam that found the reflective eyes of the caiman and each wondering whether it would be a "caiman blanco" (the local name for the spectacled caiman, Caiman crocodilus) or the more uncommon "caiman negro" (the black caiman, Melanosuchus niger) that would be the first to be found.

We didn't have to wait long to find out. The boat edged carefully around a fallen tree and ahead was eyeshine. The lights of all but the guide in the prow were turned out (this prevented the guide from being silhouetted and easily seen by the caiman).

Slowly, slowly, the boat edged forward and the prowman whispered "blanco." We were approaching a spectacled caiman. A quick grab by the prowman and the 24 inch long caiman, a lifer for many of the tour participant, was passed back for us all to see.

But there was an extra added attraction here because it quickly became apparent that the surprised (but unharmed) caiman had a half-swallowed something in its mouth. And after a couple of convulsive hiccups by the caiman the something disgorged proved to be a 15 inch long snake--a beautiful snake bearing narrow rings of black, red, and white. A coral snake? No. A coral mud snake, Hydrops martii, a second and very unexpected lifer found in a most unorthodox manner!

More photos below ...