The distress call of Caiman crocodilus crocodilus (Crocodylia: Alligatoridae) in western Amazonia, Brazil

Analysis of vocalization can play a significant role in taxonomic studies, helping to identity cryptic species in species complex, as has been show for different vertebrate groups: primates (Zimmermann 1990), birds (Alstrom & Ranft 2003), amphibians (Padial & De La Riva 2009). In reptiles the analysis of vocalization has been explored mostly in behavioral, ecological, morphological and physiological studies, especially in lizards (Gans 1973; Frankenberg & Werner 1992; Russel et al . 2000) and crocodilians (Herzog & Burghardt 1977; Vergne et al . 2009). However crocodilians have the most complex acoustic repertoire, especially during the early stages of their life (Vergne et al . 2009), having different functions according to their stimulus and being classified as hatching, contact, annoyance, threat and distress calls (Britton 2001).