Jaguar

The Waorani, who live in the Yasuní rainforest, say that their warrior ancestors become jaguars when they die, and keep walking through the forest.

One of their legends tells of a father who, while digging a trap to hunt a tapir, fell into a very deep hole. His three children searched for him but found only an endless pit. In truth, the jaguar-fathers had saved him and taken him deep into the forest. There they turned him into a jaguar cub, cared for him and taught him to hunt, until he became a jaguar-man.

But he missed his family, and the jaguars let him return. Some time later he had to say goodbye: he lay down on the ground, became a jaguar and walked on into the forest as his family watched with pride. That is why, for the Waorani, the jaguar is an ancestor, and their shamans are called “fathers of the jaguar”.