My totemic animal

                            THE JAGUAR

The jaguar, or Phantera Onca "all beast" in Latin, is the biggest carnivore feline  in America. His normal weight is between 56 and 98 kg, and his length without the tail (+75 cm) is 1,60-180 cm. The structure of his body allows him to climb, swim and crawl very easily. His skull is very powerful, because he also kills his preys biting their neck with the 2nd more powerful bite in mammals. His skin is covered with thousands of black and coffee spots, admired by some painters.

The jaguar comes from an ancestor called: Panthera Onca Augusta, that lived 2 million years ago in north America.It was bigger than the actual jaguar, so he was the leader in the food pyramid from Canada to Argentina, and that allowed him to evolve into the nowadays species, the Panthera Onca. Unfortunately, by the human activity this specie´s number is decreasing, and nowadays can only be seen from the south of USA to Peru, and is also decreasing. This species is also cataloged as "also in danger" by UICN, because of the deforestation, the furtive hunting and the fight for food with humans.                       


In ancient cultures, jaguar represents:
-Colombia: magical, supernatural powers.
-Mexico: day 14 of the calendar, for a warrior, cloth his skin represents power and good luck in battle.
-Mesoamerica: so many sculptures represents a mix of a man and a jaguar.
-Peru: associated with shamanic practice, if the ritual was done great, the shaman takes the power of the jaguar, but if the ritual was done bad, the shaman gets transformed into an monster that eats people.
-Mayas: they represent the line between live and dead, they can be your spiritual guard, some jaguar get chosen by the kings to protect their palaces of enemy.