Learning about native flora and fauna helps
learn about the Classic Maya world
Posted August 20, 2020
The Laughing Falcon is featured in the Popol Vuh. A raptor that eats a snake that has eaten a frog or toad that swallowed the flea carrying the message from the Grandmother.
The same bird is called a Snake Hawk, because it’s primary diet is snakes. The Principal Bird Deity in Classic Maya Art is usually presented (especially in Early Classic ceramic scenes) in frontal view carrying a snake. Thus in my PhD dissertation decades ago I suggested that Herpetotheres cachinnans could be a model for the Principal Bird Deity. But for sure Herpetotheres cachinnans is a model for the raptor in the Popol Vuh.
This same photo shows an arboreal cactus, Selenicereus testudo crawling up the dead branch. This cactus can be seen climbing tree trunks, up in the treetops, and on fallen tree limbs all over Topoxte Island, Yaxha, Nakum, and Naranjo, in the Parque Nacional Yaxha, Nakum, Naranjo.
The Laughing Falcon/Snake Hawk is also available for birders at PNYNN. So as soon as flights resume to Guatemala, we recommend this park as a destination if you wish to learn about temple pyramids, palaces, acropolises, ballcourts, but also about the plants and birds of Maya civilization. The fruit of many arboreal cacti here are edible (wild pitaya). And these fruits are much esteemed by arboreal animals such as the micoleon (kinkajou).
Best to hire a registered guide (available at the Santa Elena/Flores airport and at the entrance to Yaxha park).
