Jami Tarris Photography

Jaguars have influenced the culture of the Americas for over a thousand years. They have been an important symbol for the different cultures that inhabited the American Continent (both North and South). The jaguar has had cosmological (relating to the origin and development of the universe), ritual, social and even economic importance. It was seen by the ancients as a being who could travel between the Worlds, as a powerful spirit capable of maintaining the balance between day and night; preserving the balance between life and death. In Pre-Hispanic cultures, the Olmecs built immense rocks in the shape of jaguar-men, considering the jaguar a powerful spirit (“Nahual”) that protected shamans as they moved between the Earthly world and the realm of spirits. The Mayans considered the Jaguar the guardian of darkness, while the Aztecs considered it a War symbol using the jaguar to create powerful elite fighters known as "The “Jaguar Warriors”. Today, the world of the mighty Jaguar has grown smaller and less important. Deforestation due to logging and to clear land for cattle is the greatest threat to the world’s third largest big cat. As the physical territory of the jaguar continues to shrink, half of the worlds’ jaguars are now found in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland. They are vulnerable to poaching as jaguar paws, teeth and other body parts are still sought after, mostly by China for traditional medicine and ornaments.