We have found scientific illustrations by three capable artists:
- a bird and peccary by Henke
- a dozen illustrations of animals by Joan Branca
- Nice set of illustrations by Wendy Addison
Addison and Branca helped as volunteers on FLAAR projects half a century ago. Both are alive and well and still doing eye-catching art designs. We estimate Henke was also a student assisting us in Guatemala; since we don’t have a first name we have not yet located this individual.
Mario Vasquez, CONAP co-administrator of PNYNN has asked us (FLAAR and FLAAR Mesoamerica) to add additional research on fauna to our long-term dedicated field work and library research on plants and animals of PNYNN. So we will produce two FLAAR reports on fauna of Yaxha: one with drawings by Joan Branca; and a second report with drawings by Wendy Addison. We hope to find more by Henke as well; we show here the only two we have found so far:
Ara macao, an endangered species no longer found in Central Peten (so not at Yaxha, Nakum, Naranjo, or Tikal). This macaw is a patron logo of Copan Ruinas, Honduras.
Victor estimates this is a rendering of a Tayassu pecari, white lipped peccary. I will do more research since there is also the collared peccary (and on the drawing I see the base of its white diagonal band).
To publish all these illustrations will take a while since we need to identify the genus species, common name in English, in Spanish, and in either Q’eqchi’ or Peten Itza Maya language. But we wanted to show samples first.
After we publish a first edition of each of their scientific illustrations, we will see which important species of mammals and reptiles we should add. Wendy Addison kindly told us she could accomplish additional illustrations for a more comprehensive coverage of the mammals and reptiles of Yaxha (for these creatures we will focus on the ones that appear in Classic Maya murals, on carved stone monuments, or painted or incised on ceramic vases, bowls, lids, plates, or are seen as 3-dimensional figurines of birds, reptiles, or mammals.
We will have two additional pages on this website later this summer: one with samples of the drawings of Joan Branca, and the other with illustrations by Wendy Addison.
