In the coming weeks, Venezuelan environmental workers will release 328 young Orinoco caimans (Crocodylus intermedius) that were raised in captivity, Edis Solórzano, the Environment Ministry's wildlife director, told Tierramérica. Since the program began in 1991, ''nearly 4,000 one-year-old caimans, 80 to 100 cm long, have been released in national parks on the banks of the Orinoco River. Private donations have built nurseries, involving environmentalists, universities, the government and area residents,'' she said.

Two-hundred years ago the German naturalist and explorer Alexander Von Humboldt described great populations of this member of the crocodile family much valued for its skin. But indiscriminate hunting in the first half of the 20th century nearly drove the reptile into extinction, and in Colombia the caiman has practically disappeared.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, in Venezuela's central plains, the Environment Ministry has released 20,000 young Arrau turtles (Podocnemis expansa), also raised in nurseries.