Jaguar's Shadow: Searching for a Mythic Cat

Jaguar's Shadow: Searching for a Mythic Cat by Richard Mahler. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780274745012.

In the tradition of Peter Matthiessens The Snow Leopard an intimate portrait of the endangered exotic and elusive jaguar When the nature writer Richard Mahler discovers that wild jaguars are prowling a remote corner of his home state of New Mexico he embarks on a determined quest to see in the flesh a big beautiful cat that is the stuff of legend--yet verifiably real. Mahlers passion sets in motion a years-long adventure through trackless deserts steamy jungles and malarial swamps as well as a confounding immersion in centuries-old debates over how we should properly regard these powerful predators: as varmints or as icons trophies or gods? He is drawn from border badlands south to Panamas rain forest along a route where the fate of nearly all wildlife now rests in human hands. Mahlers odyssey introduces him to unrepentant poachers pragmatic ranchers midnight drug-runners ardent conservationists trance-induced shamans hopeful biologists stodgy bureaucrats academic philosophers macho hunters and gentle Maya Indians. Along the way he is forced to reconsider the true meaning of his search--and the enduring symbolism of the jaguar.