[Aztlan] Tigre frijolillo thought

[Elaine Day Schele]

Hi Beatrice:
I cannot make any comments about "black panther" possibilities, but there
are and were black jaguars in Mesoamerica.  In reality their coats have the
same flowerlet splotchy pattern, but their overall coats are very dark.
View the link I am posting here to see a black jaguar.  It is necessary to
go halfway done the page until you get to the title social system and
communication:  http://www.bigcatrescue.org/jaguar.htm

Here is another, but you can barely see the pattern underneath the black,
but it is there.

Elaine
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Beatrice Koch" <beakoch at juno.com>
To: <jorgepl at estudioelias.com>; <nhopkins at mailer.fsu.edu>
Cc: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 11:01 PM
Subject: [Aztlan] Tigre frijolillo thought


> 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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> >
>
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