Although most of my research as
been with squamata
reptiles, being a herpetologist in Venezuela involves being
somewhat of a generalist. There are way too many herps and
very few herpetologist. During my field work in the llanos, I
have
spend considerable time with croc biologist and due to my draw towards
large reptiles I have ended up helping in collaborating with them quite
a bit.
Back in 1990 I was among the people
that participated
on the first reintroduction of Orinoco crocodiles in the the wild as an
effort revocer their populations and later in 1998, while I was looking
for anacondas with a filming crew from England, we were lucky enough to
find the first two clutches of the reintroduced animals in the
wild.
Later on, my follow up of other animals reintroduced in other places
gave
me enough 
information to assess the age at first reproduction
of these wonderful reptiles.
On 1999 I started teaching a course of
Tropical Ecology
for Boston University (click here to see
some
of the students) that allowed me to travel throughout Ecuador and
visit
many of its wonderful natural areas. One of which is dead in the
midle of a very pristine rainforest in the basin of the Napo River,
Tiputini
Biodiversity Station. While looking for a black water lagoon that
a friend suspected was around, we ran into a nest of dwarf caimans (Paleosuchus
trigonatus). This findings gave me the opportuinty channel
the
interest of some of my students on collecting good data on the natural
history of these very unknown species that so far has produced two
interesting
contributions on their
nesting habits and the
time
budget of the babies. While were were there we also studied
the
diet, habitat use of dwarf caimans as well as how the overlap niche
with
spectacled caimans.
Publications on Crocodilian biology
Rivas, J. A. and R. Y. Owens Crocodylus intermedius (Orinoco crocodile): age at first reproduction Herpetological Review.
Rivas, J. A., Aktay, S. A. and R. Y. Owens. 2001 Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider’s Smooth-fronted Caiman): Nesting and hatching Herpetological Review. 32: 251. (PDF file)
© Jesus A. Rivas. All
rigths
reserved
