Our film plunges us into the heart of the Amazon to tell the story of South America's largest predator. Lake of a Thousand Caiman is constructed around the annual dry season in the jungle and our tale starts as the season begins. As the forest dries the caiman are lured to the only remaining source of water, the lake, and it is here that the action really heats up. Over a thousand of these prehistoric giants cram into an ever decreasing pool battling for space. Although the black caiman are the stars of the film we also meet other forest creatures, jaguars, sloths and buffalo to name but a few. The tension mounts as the dry season wears on and competition for food, both in and around the lake, becomes fierce. Fish trapped in the lake become the main source of food for just about everything and they are brutally contested. Following the fortunes of the ever drying lake we discover that this is also caiman breeding season. Amid the writhing chaos, giant males battle for females and we capture the mating rituals of these crocodilian giants for the first time. As the female caiman lay their eggs, you might imagine that only a fool would try and rob a caiman's nest with over a thousand angry adults around, but not so. We watch as daring nest raiders come in all shape and sizes. Baby caiman are born into the shrinking lake, and they too become a hotly contested food source. Just as if it seems that all the creatures are too crowded and the level of aggression is too high the dry season comes to an abrupt end. Our story ends as rain falls and the forest floods, allowing those trapped in the lake to return to the safety and space of the forest.

Originally released by National Geographic, 2007. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on April 07, 2015.

Black Caiman (5:14); --Seasonal Flooding (5:01); -- Adaptation (7:12); -- Breeding Season (9:25); -- Nesting (4:43); -- Egg Thieves (10:06); -- Baby Caimans (5:52); -- Rains Return (6:19); .