[Aztlan] Tigre frijolillo thought

[Beatrice Koch]

I wonder.  The Maya were certainly observant and used their language
meaningfully to descibe what they saw.  
I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and knew early about what we called
"pumas" or "mountain lions" and  they are also called "panthers." 
Sometime later in life I heard of "black panthers" but know little about
their habitat.  Back in Boulder, the big cats frengueting our
neighborhoods from the front range of the Rockies do persist in growing
numbers, but they aren't black.

Having read both of your missives, I think this may be simply a black
panther.  It that possible?  

Does anyone know enough about these animals to shed some additional light
on that possi ility?

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:08:33 -0600 =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jorge_P=E9rez_de_Lara?=
<jorgepl at estudioelias.com> writes:
> Listeros,
> 
> I may have an explanation for part of Nick Hopkins' recent 
> contribution, 
> in which he (sort of) wonders:
> 
> ..."tigre frijolillo," whatever cat that is...
> 
> Although it would translate as "tiger" and therefore would be 
> taxonomically incorrect, "tigre" is a well-known term for jaguar in 
> much 
> of Southern Mexico, while "frijolillo" is used much in the way of 
> the 
> colloquial "colorado," which literally means "colored" but is used 
> in 
> reference to the color red. Likewise "frijolillo" is a reference to 
> the 
> color of beans (i.e., frijoles) and is used to refer to black 
> things. 
> Hence "tigre frijolillo" is a popular/colloquial way of saying 
> "black 
> jaguar".
> 
> Jorge
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