Hi everyone, I hope this finds you well. If you're a long time listener to the wild, then

you probably know I'm a cat person. Not the kind that hang around your house, they're

nice to love cats, but I really love big cats. I've got a remote wildlife camera out in

my local forest near my house. I live near Bellingham in Washington State. It's just one

camera out there as kind of an experiment to see what walks by. It's always like Christmas

checking it. Last time I had two different kugas and a bobcat on it, all very cool. We've

done a few big cat episodes, including kugas, mountain lions, some of you called them, and

my trip to Russia to find Siberian tigers. Today though, it's jaguars, back in the jungles

of Belize in Central America. I became pretty obsessed with my search for these cats, and

the search led me to some wonderful people who were out to understand and protect the jaguars.

Some of them are part of the story. And hey, if you missed the last episode, it was about

Scarlet McCores also in Belize. Check it out. It's a great introduction to the people

and the wildlife there. So kick back, lend me your ears, and join me on the path of the

jaguar. I'm so glad you're here. I'm at Karakal at the temple, staring straight at it

right now, and it's amazing, it's breathtaking. I'm in Belize in Central America. I start

up the steps of the temple, which one is about knee height. It's like climbing a pyramid,

except this one is in the middle of the jungle. I'm here to learn about the

story of the biggest wild cat in the new world, the jaguar, and the Karakal temple seems

like a good place to start. Okay, the jaguar was a very symbolic animal that represented

power and authority for Mayas. Geronimo Zebe is a historian. He's showing me around

the place for the day. As a Mayan, he has a special relationship with Karakal. He stopped

at the bottom of the steps to say a prayer before telling me more. It's more a spiritual

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