Title
Chapter Title: State of the Jaguar in Guatemala: 2013 Report
Book Title: The jaguar in the 21st century: A continental perspective
Author(s)
García Anleu, Rony ;McNab, Roan Balas ;Polisar, John ;Ramos, Víctor Hugo ;Moreira, José ;Ponce-Santizo, Gabriela ;Duchez, Kurt ;Escobar, Rebeca ;Santose, Abel
Published
2016
Abstract
Since pre-Hispanic times, the jaguar (Panthera onca) has been an important element for human societies. For the Mayan culture, the jaguar is balam, the voice with which the Mayans have referred to the most powerful feline in the American continent, which is also an image, a symbol, a mythical character, an emblem of power, an attribute of political power, rector of time, lord of the night and ruler of the underworld (Valverde, 2004). The oldest accounts of jaguars in Guatemala are found in the famous book Popol vuh, which is a compilation of several legends of the various ethnic groups that inhabited southern Guatemala and part of Central America before the arrival of the Spaniards. The Historia natural del Reino de Guatemala (Ximenes, 1722) is the first reference to jaguars in the country after the arrival of the Spanish.
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PUB15882