Reptilia · Squamata
Dracaena guianensisDaudin, 1801
Guyana Caiman Lizard
Photograph by Brett Weinstein, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 412 mm snout to vent.
Also called Northern Caiman Lizard.
Reptilia › Squamata › Teiidae › Dracaena
- Grows to
- 412mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 12years
Longer than 97% of all species in Teiidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 52.4 to 614 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
37 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 12years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.2°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.2°C
Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Honegger 1969, Slavens and Slavens 1999: 9 and 3 months; 12 (http://thezooreviewer.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/species-fact-profile-northern-caiman.html), 10+ (http://zooknoxvillevols.org/PDFs/NCLizard.pdf)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 412mm16 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 324mm13 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 324mm13 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 110mm4.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 110mm4.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 2428.5g5.4 lb
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 1500g3.3 lb
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 811g1.8 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 118g4.2 oz
max 412 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Forest, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 210–230m
- Range size
- 3,151,863km²
invertebrates: snails; "molluscivorous" (Schaerlaeken et al. 2012)
e.g., Ribeiro-Junior and Amaral 2016
semiaquatic and Arboreal / mainly Terrestrial, also climb (Rogner 1997b) / semi aquatic, terrestrial and arboreal (Ribeiro-Junior and Amaral 2016)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 8.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–15eggs
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Daudin
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1801
- Type locality
- French Guiana
Keeping one
5 ft 5 in × 5 ft 5 in × 3 ft 5 in(165 × 165 × 103 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 16 in (412 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 90 °F (32.2 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
200kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 2,428 g, the heaviest recorded for Guyana Caiman Lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Teiidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Dracaena guianensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dracaena-guianensis
@misc{dracaena_guianensis_2026,
title = {Dracaena guianensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dracaena-guianensis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.