My first encounter with a lagarto, the local common name for any crocodilian ...
My first encounter with a "lagarto," the local common name for any crocodilian, was on the road to Barú Beach on a hot afternoon during the dry season of 1979. The large reptile looked like a log in the road. I remember thinking it was an odd place to find a lagarto. They were supposed to like water, not dusty roads. Then it occurred to me that most of the water holes had dried up. I started to get out of the jeep to have a closer look, but hesitated to consider the size of the beast.
It was about two meters long, possibly 100 kilograms, with a broad head and a wide rounded nose. It hadn't moved and I wasn't even sure it was alive. Yet its bulk and fearsome appearance kept me apprehensive about stepping down from the jeep. In an instant the lagarto whirled, ran straight down the road and then veered off to the side, barreling into the tall grass. Amazed at the incredible burst of speed and power, I remember being thankful I hadn't gotten out of the jeep. I drove to where it had left the road in hopes of catching another glimpse of the large reptile, but only a trail of bent blades of grass told of its passage.
Later I learned that what I had seen was a spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus.) Over the years I have seen many more. Most were smaller than that first one, usually under a meter. I also learned that during the dry season caimans are often found in unlikely places. One year a large individual took possession of a portion of one of the Hacienda Barú nature trails and refused to let visitors pass. All the groups had to make a wide detour to avoid the foul tempered reptile. Another time we found one about 300 meters above the road, up in the jungle nearly a kilometer from the closest water. I suspect that when their normal water holes dry up that the best puddles become the exclusive territory of the largest caimans and all others have to go searching for water wherever they can find it. More of them seem to move into the river in time of drought.
One cloudy afternoon in 1989, I was guiding a British couple who were more interested in birds than reptiles. We were peering through a screen of vines and cane that hid us from the nesting area of a large group of cattle egrets and boat-billed herons. The tripod mounted spotting scope was aimed directly at a nest with two fluffy white egret chicks. I commented to the couple that the largest caiman in the estuary always takes possession of the water around the nesting area and eats every bird that falls into the water. I will never forget the cynical look that the lady gave me. Her thoughts couldn't have been clearer if she had said, "Look buddy, don't give me that crap.
You only see that kind of stuff on National Geographic Specials. Not in real life." What could I say? Maybe she was right. I had never actually seen a caiman eat a bird. I merely assumed that they did. I shrugged and turned to pick up the telescope. To my surprise and delight I found myself looking across the water at a really big caiman eating an egret. White feathers fell from the corners of his mouth as he chewed. I suppose I was smirking as I turned back to the lady and said as casually as I could muster, "As a matter of fact, there he is, right over there." In a few seconds I had the spotting scope on the big caiman's head. Both of them got to see it, white feathers and all. It was all I could do to contain my excitement. Here was the largest caiman I had ever seen chomping away on a cattle egret, and it was just like on the National Geographic Specials. This one was about two and a half meters long.
There had always been stories of larger crocodilians. One local cattleman, who tended toward exaggeration, swore that he had seen a five meter long lagarto sunning itself on the mud flats along the shore of the Barú River. Nobody ever paid much attention to him. The late Douglas Robinson Ph.D., renowned herpetologist from the University of Costa Rica once asked me if we had both caimans and crocodiles. I told him, that I didn't know how to tell the difference. He said, "Oh, that's easy. If it's a caiman it will run from you and if it's a crocodile it will eat you." Doug was just joking, but his point was well taken. Crocodiles tend to be larger and more aggressive than caimans and both are found in this part of Costa Rica. The Tarcoles River has some crocodiles that are up to six meters long and weigh at least a ton. I have seen a four meter crocodile 23 kilometers northwest of Dominical, in the Savegre River near the bridge, in an area where people were swimming.
The first report I ever heard of someone being killed by a crocodile in Costa Rica was in 1994. The incident took place on the Caribbean side of the country in one of the National Parks. The victim was a Swiss volunteer who insisted on swimming in the river at the same place and at the same time of day in spite of warnings by Park Guards. A very large crocodile was known to hang out in the area. One fateful afternoon the boy never returned from his swim. A year later someone was killed in Guanacaste and in 1998 there was a death near Puntarenas. In the Puntarenas attack several men were fishing from a boat when one of the fishing lines became snagged on something on the bottom of the river. The fisherman decided to dive down to it to unhook his line. Several crocodiles of four to six meters were visible on the river bank. The other men in the boat begged their companion not to dive into the water, but he chose not to heed their warnings and paid with his life.
Australian aboriginal culture has evolved in an ambiant with the ever present danger of large crocodiles. They have learned never go to the river at the same place nor at the same time of day and never to set up a routine or pattern of activity when near crocodile habitat. Crocodiles are capable of leaping out of the water more than half their body length and have been known to snatch people out of canoes. The last person in the canoe is always the victim. For this reason the Australian aborigines seat the elderly and least productive members of the tribe in the back. The aborigines from Borneo do them one better. There the custom is to seat the mother-in-law in the tail end of the canoe.
Now that crocodiles have been protected in Australia for over 35 years, the species has recovered to the point that there are many large individuals capable of killing a person. At least nine deaths occurred in the 1980's alone. Records show that the smallest crocodile to kill a human in Australia was three and a half meters long, but most were over four meters. A Toyota pickup is four meters from bumper to bumper.
In 1993 we built a bird blind at the Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge. It is elevated on stilts over the water with netting to obscure the observers from the birds. The large caiman I saw eating the egret became a common sight from the blind, especially during the water bird nesting season. In addition to the cattle egrets and boat-billed herons, anhingas, olivaceous cormorants, green-backed herons, and white ibis come there to nest. One day in the year 1994, guide Pedro Porras came back from a birding tour to inform me that they had seen a large reptile at the bird blind. "It was something different." Said Pedro, "Bigger than the caiman."
The new resident turned out to be an American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus.) It was around three meters in length had a longer narrower nose and more pointed snout than the caiman. As a quick means of distinguishing between the two species, we learned to look for the two large teeth, one on each side, jutting up from the forward part of the lower jaw. They are visible when the crocodile's mouth is closed. The big croc has returned to the rookery every year since then during the rainy season when the birds nest. When he arrives the large caiman pulls back into a secondary territory at least 20 meters away. It was two years after Pedro's first sighting, before we saw another, smaller American crocodile
Then in the year 2000 a two and a half meter specimen was observed by herpetologist Mason Ryan on a night hike along one of the Hacienda Barú self guided trails. This was in a swampy area about two kilometers from the bird blind.
On October 29, 2001, Hacienda Barú guide Juan Ramón Segura, accompanied by tourist Jack Anderson, observed at close range, a large American crocodile sunning itself on the Hacienda Barú side of the Barú River on a sandy flat near the river mouth. They estimated it to be a little over three meters in length. This is large enough to be a menace to swimmers. In reality there is enough human induced contamination of the Barú that I wouldn't want to swim there anyway. I doubt if the crocodile would be a threat to surfers. American crocodiles do swim out into the ocean, but probably they only do it when migrating from one river to another. It is doubtful if they feed in the ocean and I have never heard of an attack taking place there. Surfers, please don't take my word for this, be aware that there is a possibility of danger from this and other large crocodilians.
The spectacled caiman is listed as threatened and appears in CITES appendix II. The American crocodile is listed as endangered and appears in CITES appendix I and on the IUCN red list of species in danger of extinction. The killing of either is strictly prohibited by Costa Rican law and by international convention. I mention this because there has been talk by sport fishermen from San Isidro of killing the crocodile. Aside from being illegal, I believe killing it would be a very stupid thing to do.
Crocodile watching with spotting scopes from the Dominical side of the river could, with time develop into a great tourist activity. There is a good chance that there are more than the one seen by Juan Ramón and there will certainly be more in the future. They should be considered as assets to the community. If you have ever seen all the cars and tour buses that stop at the bridge over the Tarcoles River to observe the crocodiles, you will understand what I mean.
If you can find a copy of it you might enjoy reading the book Crocodile Attack by Hugh Edwards, Avon Books 1990, ISBN: 0-380-71189-3.
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