An Indomitable Beast The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar
The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also
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Indomitable Beast The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar
Alan Rabinowitz
An Indomitable Beast
An Indomitable Beast The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar
Alan Rabinowitz
Washington | Covelo | London
Copyright © 2014 Alan Rabinowitz All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 2000 M Street, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036 Island Press is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014933248 Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords: Island Press, jaguar, corridor, connectivity, apex predator, big cat, Wildlife Conservation Society, Panthera, trophic cascade, were-jaguar, indigenous Mesoamerican cultures, indigenous South American cultures
This book is dedicated to my wife, Salisa, and my children, Alexander and Alana, who put up with all my years of work and travel so that I could help be the voice for the big cats.
Contents List of Illustrations xi Prologuexvii Chapter 1 In the Beginning . . . 1 Chapter 2 The Pleistocene Jaguar Corridor 9 Chapter 3 The First People of the Jaguar 23 Chapter 4 When Jaguars Talked to Man 35 Chapter 5 The Conquest of Jaguar Land 53 Chapter 6 The Killing Grounds 67 Chapter 7 Into the Jaguar’s World 83 Chapter 8 Meals on the Hoof 99 Chapter 9 Thinking to Scale 115 Chapter 10 The Underground Railway of the Jaguar 133 ix
x An Indomitable Beast Chapter 11 Borderland Jaguars Chapter 12 In Search of Jaguarness Chapter 13 The Reluctant Warrior Chapter 14 Survival in a Changing World Glossary Bibliography Acknowledgments About the Author Index
151 165 181 189 205 209 225 229 231
Illustrations Plate 1 Geologic time scale of the Cenozoic Era, sometimes called the Age of Mammals. (Adapted from Geological Society of America, www.geosociety.org/ science/timescale/.) Plate 2 The “Dancing Jaguar” at Copán, Honduras, part of the architectural and sculptural complex characteristic of the Classic Era of Maya civilization, which lasted from the fifth to the ninth centuries. (Photo by Steve Winter, Panthera.) Plate 3 Map of approximate time periods, locations, and distribution of major preColumbian civilizations. (Map by Lisanne Petracca, Panthera.)
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xii An Indomitable Beast Plate 4A Map depicting the state of our knowledge of jaguar abundance and distribution in 1987 in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. (Adapted from Swank and Teer, 1989, fig. 1.) Plate 4B Map depicting the state of our knowledge of jaguar abundance and distribution in 1987 in South America. (Adapted from Swank and Teer, 1989, fig. 2.) Plate 5 Maps illustrating the extent of knowledge regarding jaguar distribution, breeding populations, and point observations by experts attending the 1999 meeting in Mexico City. (Adapted from Sanderson et al., 2002, fig. 1.) Plate 6 Known breeding popula
