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Jaguar tracks inside their footprints
Footprints
The rain had left their feet sunk deep in the mud the day before. Following those prints out the next morning, the team saw that a jaguar had stepped in them. How long it had followed, and how close it had come, was impossible to tell.
Lost students
Another day, when six students got lost in the jungle and two team members chased after them yelling names, something big crashed through the woods just to their right. It stopped when they stopped and moved when they moved. They picked up sticks and whispered.
Jaguar versus puma
Jaguars rarely attack people and are curious and playful. The animal to fear in Belize and Guatemala is the puma, which has no sense of humor. The local Maya put it plainly: meet a jaguar and you might live, and meet a puma and you are dead.
How do jaguars kill their prey?
Jaguars have the strongest bite relative to body size of any big cat. Most big cats kill by biting the throat or neck. Jaguars often bite through the skull or the base of the head. Their prey includes caiman, capybara, deer, and peccaries.
Why do jaguars matter in Maya belief?
The jaguar was a symbol of royalty and of the night sun. Maya art shows kings wearing jaguar pelts and sitting on jaguar thrones. Royal names often include the word jaguar, such as Shield Jaguar and Bird Jaguar of Yaxchilan. The Maya linked the animal to the underworld, where they believed the sun travels at night.
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