Voyage in troubled waters

Once upon a time, there existed a pond. No human being had ever penetrated this pond. For, this pond was totally inaccessible, situated as it is, in an immense marshland, between the frontiers of Brazil and the French Guinea.

A sort of paradise, where life seemed to go by in perfect harmony. Some of the rarest species have chosen this place as their home: birds, reptiles and plants that one can find nowhere else. A sanctuary for rare species, and especially, the last one for the black cayman.

But this pond was soon going to reveal its most intimate secrets. One day, from out of the blue, a mammal that nobody had ever seen in the neighbourhood, accompanied by some similar-looking relatives, arrived here by the only means possible: the sky. Another rare species: scientists.

Heading this small group was Daniel Guiral, researcher at the Institute for Development, specialised in acquatic ecology. Intrigued for a number of years by this pond that he had only been able to survey by air, he is now determined to decipher all the strategies adopted by the residents of this small paradise. This paradise, that was soon going to reveal itself as a universe maintained by subtle equilibriums and that depended mainly on laws of extraordinary ingeniousness.