Man-Animal Interaction: Conflict & Coexistance

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#211

01-24-2021, 03:32 PM

Case of the Biologist attacked by 4 m+ Black Caiman who bit off her leg then a big group of local people killed the reptile, found her leg and took it to the hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XEPyW2yY8M

https://uc.socioambiental.org/noticia/89543

YEAR: 2010

AMAZON

''The Mamirauá Reserve in the Amazon concentrates one of the largest caiman populations in the region. A biologist who left São Paulo in search of a dream - to live in one of the largest wildlife conservation units in the Amazon - ended up being a victim of this animal, lost a leg, but survived in a surprising way.

Some researchers assure that in Mamirauá there are 90 caimans for each inhabitant of the reserve. The Black Caiman is the largest predator in South America: Some measure more than 6 meters of length.

When such an animal bites someone, it is difficult for the victim to survive. In December, on New Year's Eve in Mamirauá, biologist Deise Nishimura from São Paulo was cleaning fish on the edge of the floating house where she lived, when she was dragged into the water by an over 4 meters long Black Caiman. Even unarmed, she decided to fight for her life.

Deise Nishimura : - "By that time, I thought I was dead, its gone. But then I remembered that I saw in a documentary that when you're attacked by a shark, the most sensitive part of the shark is its your nose. Then I thought: what will be the most sensitive part of the Black Caiman? I recall his head was right behind me then I put my hand on its head and I found two holes, I don't know if it was the nose or the eye, then and I stuck my fingers and squeezed it really really hard. That's when it let go of me and by that time I realized I was already without my leg" recalls the biologist.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Deise swam to the edge of the house but she could not climb. She had to climb a log/trunk to get out of the water. Exhausted, she screamed for help but there was no one around. So she dragged herself to the radio room and asked for help. "15 minutes later, the reserve workers arrived. They wrapped a tourniquet around her leg and took the Biologist to Tefé. At the hospital, one hour later, the doctor was surprised.

Adalberto Villa Lobos (Doctor who operated on Deise): - ''That day Deise arrived at the hospital in shock. If it was someone else without Deise's resistence and luck wouldn't have survived this type of attack. ''

What drew the doctor's attention the most was that Deise's femoral artery remained blocked, even without the tourniquet. This prevented her from dying of hemorrhage.

Deise Nishimura: - "Arriving in the hospital the doctor was even surprised that I had not lost much blood. He (the doctor) thinks that during the attack in the moment the Black Caiman was spinning me around it twisted the artery as well and that stopped the blood.''

*This image is copyright of its original author

In the eight months that she worked in the reserve, Deise took several pictures of the Black Caiman, it liked to sleep under the floating house where the biologist lived.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Black caiman even had a name, although it was a huge male it was called Dorotéia. On The following day after the attack, the Ribeirinhos (local residents) of the reserve killed the animal and found Deise's leg and took it to the hospital in Tefé. But according to the doctor, there was no way to try a reimplant.

"The reimplant was discarded because of the kind of injury the Caiman causes on a leg or any limb it attacks," says the doctor. But thank God, we were able to do a very good surgical intervention, we were able to clean everything and there was no infection at all".

The biologist returned to live in São Paulo, where she undergoes physiotherapy to receive a prosthesis and learn to walk again.
Despite of everything, she says she was sad when she heard that the Black Caiman was killed. She is against the liberation of hunting.

Deise Nishimura: - "If we allow the Ribeirinhos population kill the black caimans, They will exterminate all caimans because they already don't like caimans and If we allow them to, they will wipe them out" she says.

With the courage of who already faced a Beast and survived, Deise talks about the attack with calmly, and says she can't wait to go back to the jungle.

Deise Nishimura: - "I really want to go back to the Amazon to return doing the research that I was doing with the Red River Dolphin and a friend of mine who researches caimans will take me to see caimans during the night time he said that if we throw the strong light in their eyes, it shines. It's gonna be very cool." says the biologist.