A Journey of the Jaguar

The jaguar is commonly known as the ghost of the jungle. These powerful predators have been awe-inspiring to people for thousands of years. Ancient Maya recognized jaguars as a sign of socioeconomic power and some of their spiritual gods were jaguars. Historically, jaguars were seen as creatures who would pass between the border of the human and underworlds. Today, jaguars are either confined to enclosures and their habitat is being reduced. Jaguars are listed as Near Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their population has been declared as declining in 2016 (Quigley et al. 2017). Jaguars have been eradicated from 40% of their historic range because of habitat loss (Panthera n.d.). The space jaguars occupy in the human world has morphed with time, but people today view them in many of the same ways that the ancient Mayan people did. Jaguars have gone from crossing borders that humans only crossed in death to being confined to enclosures and cages for their entire lives.

The jaguar in the photo above can be used to represent the journey of jaguars through time. I met him while visiting the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska, USA. Even in an enclosure, he walked with a powerful and stalking gait. It was clear that he was subdued, but that did not dilute his strength and intelligence. He made eye contact with me and I had an instinctual animal reaction, but I was not afraid. This jaguar's message was clear to me. His confinement, his battle for survival as a species and his fury at the lack of integrity he had at that moment were mine too. I recently returned to that zoo and he was gone. I do not know where he is or what his life was like before I promised him that his fight was my fight. I do know that I am going to tell his story with the human voice he will never have.

Discussing indigenous cultures in an academic setting often only takes information and returns nothing to the people whose stories are being told. Here the Mayan culture is being shared. To be respectful of Maya heritage, I would like to add a disclaimer that western culture and academia do not have a right to know about Mayan beliefs. Additionally, many Mayan artifacts were collected without permission and often in a disrespectful manner and their interpretations may be incorrect. Effort went into this report to make it ethically correct and that the sources were accurate.

The ancient Maya thrived in the Yucatan peninsula and have been recorded from about 2000 BC until the Spanish conquest in AD 1520 (Castex 2014). According to National Geographic's Peter Gwin, the Maya fed millions of people with an advanced agricultural system. The Maya also had sophisticated art, grand architecture, mathematics, and calendars (Castex 2014). Gwin compares the Maya to civilizations like Rome, Babylon, and Egypt. The Maya had cities that stretched from Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras (Castex 2014). Examples of these states are Mayapan, Tikal, and Chichén Itzá represented by the black triangles in Figure 1.

Chichén Itzá became a city toward the end of the Maya civilization, specifically late classic (AD 600-900) to the terminal classic (AD 800-900) (Batun 2020). Chichén Itzá is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world with a magnificent pyramid, the Pyramid of Kukulkan in the center of the city. A video tour of Chichén Itzá is shown in video 1. Mayan cities were usually built around the only source of water in the Yucatan peninsula, cenotes. Cenotes, which are sinkholes connected to aqueducts. Cenotes are represented by navy circles in Figure 1. Cenotes were also seen as entrances to the Mayan underworld. The Jaguar God G goes into the underworld as a jaguar at night through a cenote and emerges as the sun in the morning (Castex 2014).

Jaguars were not side characters in the story of ancient Maya mythology. The jaguar is present in the Polpol Vuh, the Mayan creation story, in the name of one of the Hero Twins and a House of the underworld (Castex 2014). God G is responsible for bringing the sun up. There is also a Water Lily Jaguar God who is often represented as a full-body jaguar with water lilies around their head (Castex 2014). These jaguar deities are spiritually significant to ancient Maya culture.

Jaguars are more prevalent in Mayan cities that had a higher jaguar population density, but even in areas like Chichén Itzá that had fewer jaguars, there is jaguar iconography like the Throne of the Jaguar in the Lower Temple of the Jaguar in El Castillo seen in figure 2.

The use of jade and the color green in the Throne of the Jaguar (figure 2) is significant because this material may have represented water to the ancient Maya. This could be a connection between jaguars and water, and since the only source of water is cenotes, that connects jaguars and cenotes.

Cenotes acted both as a water source and an entrance into the underworld. Specifically, jaguar God G and the Water Lily Jaguar God were connected to water and traveling from the Mayan world to the underworld. A cenote would have acted as an axis mundi that these figures crossed into the underworld. A virtual tour of a cenote can be found in video 2. Cenotes have a variety of openings; open-mouthed cenotes were especially spiritually significant and received the most sacrifices (Batun 2020). The connection between Jaguar God figures and cenotes indicates that jaguars were spiritually significant for this reason. Jaguars also represented power in the Mayan culture. This power resulted in a link between jaguar iconography and physical and political strength.

The ancient Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures were fascinated by jaguars. The Aztecs had three warrior orders, one of those orders was the order of the jaguar (Dr. Miller 2020). The Aztec warriors in the jaguar order wore jaguar costumes (Dr. Miller 2020). Wealthy people and royalty wore pelts and painted jaguar patterns on their clothing or skin. For example, the people depicted in figure 3. This a scene from AD 550-830 in Bonampak, Mexico of royalty sacrificing captives while wearing jaguar patterns. The presence of jaguar patterns on the people in power suggests that these patterns were associated with strength.

The Maya also had ways (Wuh-ay), spiritual alter-egos like a frog, tree, or jaguar (Miller 2020). In the interview with Dr. Miller, a specific Mayan pot from AD 600-900 was analyzed. That pot is shown in figure 4 as well as explained in video 3. In the pot three ways are shown, each way is unique to the person they belonged to. These animals also have human characteristics, like the jaguar on the far left standing on two legs and the jaguar is wearing a scarf (Miller 2020). The form a way takes is not understood to be a choice, so powerful people may have a jaguar way. Jaguars were linked to strength and power, being associated with jaguars either by the form of one's way or possessing jaguar patterns or pelts infused the individual with the power of the jaguar. The fascination of jaguars did not stop in the time of the ancient Maya.

Jaguars are the largest feline in the western hemisphere (Panthera n.d.). Jaguars have spots called rosettes, which have a pattern that is unique to each individual. The jaguar is known for its efficiency as a solo hunter. Jaguars hunt in a variety of ways, the killing strike is usually made to the brain stem. Jaguars have the strongest bite force in ratio to their body of any big cat. Jaguars are known to drag caiman, a central and south American alligator-like reptile, out of the water and kill them. The jaguar is the ruler of the jungle, from the trees, land, and water.

It is fairly common for jaguars (figure 5), leopards (figure 6), and cheetahs (figure 7) to be mistaken for each other. When using a search engine for images of jaguars, leopards and cheetahs appear in the feed. There are geographical and morphological differences between these species. Leopards are lighter than jaguars, a leopard's rosettes are smaller, and leopards have a smaller stature than the jaguar. Cheetahs have teardrop markings on their faces and an arrow-dynamic frame that allows cheetahs to be the fastest land mammal as seen in figure 7.

The wild jaguar population is declining due to several factors including severe habitat fragmentation (Quigley et al. 2017). The estimation of where jaguars have a stable population is displayed by the orange area in Figure 1. This separation between jaguar habitat reduces gene flow between individuals and reducing the genetic diversity of the species. Jaguars face borders in the wild and captivity.

Many facilities house jaguars for beneficial reasons like education at zoos. However, it is extremely rare for big cats to be released into the wild from captivity. So, unlike breed and release programs that lead to success for species like the whooping crane, jaguars and other large cats do not greatly benefit from individuals in captivity. There are organizations like Jaguars Into the Wild (  http://www.jaguaresenlaselva.org.mx/  ) who are working on ground-breaking genetic preservation and possible cub rehabilitation and release. Humans are struggling with being quarantined for a few months, but big cats who can travel 500 miles in three months spend their whole lives in enclosures.

Jaguars were assessed as Near Threatened by the IUCN in 2016 (Quigley et al. 2017). The IUCN takes into consideration geographic range, population, habitat and ecology, threats to the species, use and trade of the species, and conservation actions for their assessments. The status of Near Threatened is conceptualized in figure 8.

Organizations like Panthera, founded by Alan Rabinowitz are working tirelessly to conserve all wild felines. As a child, Rabinowitz had a severe stutter and felt voiceless. A visit to the Bronx Zoo brought Rabinowitz into the presence of the zoo’s lone jaguar. Rabinowitz vowed to the jaguar that he would “find a place for us.” The voiceless. Today, Panthera protects and conserves the habitat of cats, large and small, from Belize to Taiwan. Rabinowitz kept his promise to the jaguar too, he started a project called the Jaguar Corridor Initiative. 

Conservation efforts attribute today's culture as valuing the presence of jaguars. Today people do not worship them as gods, but people like Alan Rabinowitz dedicate their lives to jaguar conservation. People and researchers eagerly set trail cameras to catch a glimpse of an elusive jaguar. Jaguars are revered and admired by people, even from behind glass. The jaguar from the zoo commands respect even trapped inside a border.

Like ancient Maya royalty, the possession of live jaguars or their pelts and teeth gives the possessor the power of the jaguar. People want to be like a jaguar, so they seek dominance over jaguars. People use jaguars as team mascots to infuse their team with strength and to intimidate other teams. This is very similar to the Aztec warrior order of the jaguar that Dr. Miller mentioned in her interview. Jaguars also make people sexier by associating themselves with the big cat. Jaguars and other big cats are also used as a communal experience, such as a TV show.

The Netflix sensation Tiger King is more than a reality TV show to entertain the millions in coronavirus quarantine. Tiger King celebrates contemptuous cruelty to some of the earth's most successful apex predators. This powerful statement is now in memes and infused in pop culture. The public is capitalizing on the pain and humiliation of jaguars and other big cats in the exact way as Tiger King's Joe Exotic. Every single person who treats Tiger King like Keeping Up with the Kardashians is shattering the respect big cats and jaguars have held for thousands of years. Furthermore, there has been no influx of donations to big cat conservation efforts. The public ate up the drama of Tiger King and left captive and wild big cats malnourished for the recovery and conservation they desperately need.

Shrinking borders and negative perceptions of jaguars are threatening their survival. A study done by Michael Steinberg investigates modern views on jaguars from the perspectives of people, including Mayans, in rural areas of Belize. Belize is a country making tangible efforts to conserve their jaguar population. Steinberg looked to Belize because it is a place where people live with jaguars, they are not just an animal that can be visited at the zoo at a person's convenience. Because of the ‘traditional’ designation of duties, women working in the home, and men hunting, women were not interviewed in Steinberg’s study. Steinberg found that 64% of the people he interviewed described jaguars as “bad” or similar negative terms (pg. 16). They also determined that none of the people who had been interviewed had ever heard of a jaguar attacking a human, but they still feared jaguars for that reason. Out of Steinberg’s 65 participants, 41% of them claimed to having attempted to hunt jaguars in their lifetimes (pg. 16). Steinberg concludes that community-based conservation would be benefit jaguars in rural Belize (pg. 18).

Whether people are living with jaguars or have never seen one in their lives, humans hold the fate of this apex predator in their hands. Everyone has a choice. Many people living with jaguars are some of the most avid advocates and work tirelessly to educate others, lead tours to display to the fiscal value of jaguars and other big cats, and work as scientists to learn more about the behavior and needs of jaguars.

People who are more removed from jaguar habitat can also seek accurate education. One of the most impactful actions consumers can take is to reduce the amount of palm oil in their diets. Jaguar habitat is harvested and destroyed for palm oil and meat products. Palm oil is present in foods like Oreos and Nutella among many more. Other important actions people can take are supporting organizations like zoos and certified sanctuaries by visiting them. One indicator of the quality of a zoo or sanctuary is if the animals can choose to be out of sight from people. There are also organizations like the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance (BCSA) who research for consumers to find credible sanctuaries. Here is a link to the sanctuaries supported by BCSA:  https://www.bigcatalliance.org/our-members/ .

Each person has the power to be an aware citizen or spokesperson for jaguars. Every action counts. People have been fascinated by jaguars for thousands of years. That fascination does not need to lead to the borders around jaguars shrinking into nothing.

Batun, Ivan. “Mayan Culture and Ancient Mayan Perspectives on Jaguars.” Interview by Khristin Landry-Montes and Lilian Heinzel. Zoom. May 8, 2020. 

Castex, Amandine Dorian. 2014. “Jaguar Manifestation in Mesoamerica and Peru.” Master’s Thesis. San Francisco State University. Accessed April 29, 2020.  http://online.sfsu.edu/mgriffin/Castex%202014.pdf .

De Anda, Guillermo., Romey, Khristin., & Batun, Ivan.. 2019. "Episode 4: Cave of the Jaguar God." Interview by Peter Gwin. Overheard, National Geographic, November 5, 2019. Audio, 27:28.  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/overheard/season-2/episode-4-cave-of-the-jaguar-god/ .

Kerr, Justin. 1998. "Kerr Number: K531." Maya Vase Data Base. Accessed May 5, 2020.  http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=531 .

Miller, Virginia. “Maya Jaguar Artifacts and Jaguar Importance in Ancient Mayan Society.” Interview by Khristin Landry-Montes and Lilian Heinzel. Zoom. May 5, 2020. 

Panthera. n.d. “Alan Rabinowitz The Life of a Conservation Legend, 1953-2018.” Accessed May 1, 2020.  https://www.panthera.org/cms/sites/default/files/Alan-Rabinowitz-Biography.pdf . 

Panthera. n.d. "Jaguar." Accessed April 29, 2020.  https://www.panthera.org/cat/jaguar/ .

Quigley, H., Foster, R., Petracca, L., Payan, E., Salom, R. & Harmsen, B. 2017. "Panthera onca (errata version published in 2018)." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Accessed April 29, 2020.  https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15953/123791436 .

Steinberg, Michael K. "Jaguar Conservation in Southern Belize: Conflicts, Perceptions, and Prospects among Mayan Hunters." Conservation and Society 14, no. 1 (2016): 13-20. Accessed April 29, 2020.  www.jstor.org/stable/26393224 .

For full interviews of Dr. Miller and Dr. Batun, please email lheinzel22@cornellcollege.edu.