The fire myth explains the jaguar’s raw diet and wariness of humans

Evidence

And from that day, the jaguar lost its fire, and had to eat its meat raw, as it does to this day (for the jaguar now eats its prey raw, having given — or lost — its fire to humankind). And from that day, too, the jaguar’s old kindness toward humans turned to wariness and enmity — which is why the jaguar now keeps apart from human beings, and is no longer the friendly fire-keeper who adopts lost human boys, but the wild and dangerous lord of the deep forest. — , A Year of World Stories, 10711

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels fire-theft myths across cultures — Coyote, Prometheus, Raven — already noted elsewhere in the curriculum.