The jaguar has to be one of the most magnificient animals on Earth. Maybe the most magnificient. Only the tiger and lion are larger cats. My friend Aniceto says I have a jaguar den on my ranch; probably some shallow limestone cave covered by dense growth. I've never seen it. I've never even seen the jaguar but Aniceto has. One evening coming back from his 'milpa' he saw it in the middle of the road. Usually they don't come out at all when it is light, but this one did.
El Tigre was probably hungry and looking for a tepe, tejon or javelina. He said the cat was barely 20 meters away from him and if he had carried a camera, he would have gotten a great shot. A gun would have worked too...but Aniceto is one of those Maya that have a great respect for both life and death in the jungle. He only kills what he eats. Aniceto is a true jungle guy. He respects the jaguar because the jaguar also hunts tepe or the tepescuintle. Man and beast: the hunters. We eat the same food, though we barbecue tepe and the jaguar chomps it raw. Aniceto is a jungle hunter that has a true weakness for tepe. He knows the jaguar does too. But there is plenty of tepe to go around.
Usually jaguars leave humans alone. I read where a zoo keeper in Denver was mauled to death by a 140 pound jaguar. To counter that, my Mayan friends say they can never remember an incident where a jaguar attacked a human. That certainly doesn't mean a jaguar wouldn't attack a human; but in the wild they really don't.
Even so, when most Maya go deep into the jungle, they carry a gun. Man is more afraid of the jaguar than the jaguar of man. The men recount times when they would be startled to look at the side of a path and find a jaguar sitting peacefully. And Maya men don't go out walking around in the jungle at night...just in case they may happen upon a jaguar.
The jaguar cannot be domesticated and clearly has little fear of man. That is why on rare occasions they can be spotted during the day right off a road or path. A Maya familiar with the jungle can spot their tracks, dung and plant life they disturb as the jaguar travels through the forest. To an untrained eye such as mine, such signs go unnoticed. But then again I am not a jungle man; advantage jaguar.
The jaguar can climb trees and actually have been seen jumping from tree to tree. Hence the tree house I plan to build on my ranch will provide no protection from the jaguar...ha. I can imagine sleeping one night and waking up to a pair of large eyes staring me in the face; maybe a boa or a jaguar. I'm not afraid of the jaguar but certainly respect him. At night we humans cannot even see them...advantage jaguar.
My concern is one day I will be out walking around on my ranch and come across the den with little jaguars in it...oh boy. Well, no one said the jungle was without some risk. That's why we go, no? Just watch out for those jaguar dens...
The jaguars, however, do eat sheep, turkeys and dogs. I can say I have seen evidence with my own eyes. Several weeks back, Aniceto took me back into the jungle at another ejido and we saw dog hairs in jaguar dung. Aniceto said that his friend had two dogs eaten by the jaguar one night...and his friend could hear his dogs yelping as the jaguar dragged them off into the jungle. Since dog is man's best friend, that sound had to be unnerving.
Several months before, his friend's cousin shot a jaguar trying to make off with a sheep. It took four men to carry El Tigre out of the jungle...and back in town they took a picture. They estimated the jaguar weighed about 170 pounds. Take a look...look at the jaguar's teeth. Jaguars can grow up to 200 pounds and eight feet long including the tail. That makes them king of the jungle...and the only predator I could find was man or rather hunter man. Maybe there are diseases or other animals that attack the jaguar, but I have not heard of it.
The Maya where I live see them as predators and not endangered. I supposed if I had little children playing around my palapa I might consider them much more of a predatory threat. But fortunately one does not hear of jaguars foraging outside small villages way back in the jungle. Perhaps the jaguar is smart enough to just leave man alone....
The jaguar is a representative of the truly wild...and that which cannot be tamed. For most of us, the jaguar is a symbol of the magnificence of the wild and what nature has created over the eons. For me, it is my neighbor and part of the ecology of my ranch. I certainly respect it and hope that it continues to respect me. Even if I do see two large eyes in the dark jungle night...and though I do not carry a gun I do carry a machete and large hunting knife. But without a gun I would be at a distinct disadvantage. Advantage jaguar. I haven't heard of the Maya going out on jaguar hunts. The jaguar has the advantage of his pursuers being very afraid of him.
I jokingly kid the wife that she is the owner of a big jaguar and that puts us right up into the social classes of the rich and famous that have big cats as pets. But she reminds me our big cat is no pet and she has given me strict orders to prohibit any hunting of cats on our ranch, though the jaguar is protected by Mexican law administered by SEMANART. So much for my hunting reserve...
I joke to the wife that even though we own the ranch, we really don't own it. We are just given a series of pieces of paper that allow us to live on it and do what we want. Almost what we want. In a funny sort of way, I am given the responsibility of protecting those parts of nature that come under my 'ownership.' That's OK. I've never been much of a hunter anyway...but I have to tell you, I'm not sure how I will react to two large eyes in the night. The one thing that has the ability to hunt me down and eat me is El Tigre.
Back here in Northern California the only jaguars here are the high maintenance Euro-sedan variety. For some, a Honda simply will not do. But that's OK. I can always go back to the ranch and carry on a wild sort of remote relationship with my jaguar. And let those Crazy Californians figure out their modern angst for themselves, ha.
What is so strange is that the jaguar is so different. There is a certain size and color scheme for animals in the jungle but the jaguar somehow doesn't fit any pattern. At some point our paths may cross but if they don't that's OK with me. Being a clumsy Gringo all the animals can hear me stumbling toward them from a hundred meters away. That's OK by me if there are no big surprises...most animals just scurry out of my way.
Advantage jaguar.
Jack D. Deal
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