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Posted February 13, 2017
Plantas Comestibles Nutritivas para Mejorar Significativamente la Dieta y Salud de los Niños en las Zonas Rurales de Guatemala
This conference is made to present the importance of nutrition among Guatemalan children, especially in rural areas, and the health benefits that this can have in the Mayan society.
You can download the formal invitation in the link above.
Posted March 16, 2017
The FLAAR philosophy is to document that most insects are not harmful to humans. We understand that many people don't like insects. But spraying pesticide, insecticide, and other poisonous chemicals in your garden or home can potentially cause eventual cancer or other expensive diseases to YOU and to your CHILDREN.
The insects we show here I found on the seed pods of the yellow-flowered Cassia tree which grows next to our house. This Cassia fistula is not native to Guatemala, but is a common garden tree. Until I can get seeds of the gorgeous lavender flowered Cassia grandis plant of Peten, Belize and other areas of the Mayan forests, we keep the Cassia fistula.
Membracis mexicana, periquito de nanche, leafhopper. They are known to like avocado trees: there is an avocado tree 2 meters away, plus in the yards of houses on both sides of our yard. They are listed as a plague for nance trees; there is a nance tree 3 meters away. So these insects are happy in our tree area, 1500 meters above sea level, in the hills of Zona 15, overlooking several volcanoes on the horizon.
I love learning about how these insects go through their growth stages: how they change color; how they interact with the ants.
Of course you should get rid of mosquitos and insects which can spread diseases which are worse than pesticides. But in general, thousands of kinds of insects are part of our eco-system, and we should not simply exterminate them (especially not with pesticide and insecticide).
Photo of Membracis mexicana, periquito de nanche among some Cassia seed pods
Leafhopper, by Erick Flores
FLAAR Photo Archive
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Posted February 1, 2017
We have made a list of all animals which the Mayan people interacted with for thousands of years. This list includes insects, seashells, sharks, centipedes: every creature of Mesoamerica which the Mayan religion, art, iconography, or hieroglyphic writing would have pictured or discussed. This information is to assist archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, ethnographers, linguists, students, and to show the world all the species that need to be protected by not bulldozing, mining, or otherwise destroying the fragile Neotropical eco-systems of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
Over the last year we have done additional videos and want to show you the links here. By the end of next week all the videos should hopefully be available.
The other aspect of our research on plants and animals of the Mayan civilization is to prepare two series of books:
The illustrated books for children can be downloaded on our www.MayanToons.org (previews, 4 pages each, of lots of titles).
The coffee table books on jaguars, macaws, and other creatures of the Neotropical seasonal rain forests, mountains, deserts, rivers, lakes, and oceans can appear as soon as donations from foundations, corporations, and considerate individuals allow our team of 15 graphic designers to prepare the material.
Posted May 10, 2016
Animals are obviously the core of successful animated films, everything from Bambi to the macaws of RIO and RIO 2. Since the office of FLAAR Reports is in Guatemala, it is no surprise that we are studying the remarkable mammals, reptiles, and amphibians of this part of the world (home office of FLAAR is Missouri, USA, but our operational office is in Latin America).
Scanning animals is tough since they move a lot. We prefer not to have to sedate an animal in order to scan it. Plus obviously in the middle of the jungle we don’t have the Hollywood style 3D scanning studios available.
So one of many reasons why we like to attend SIGGRAPH is to learn what new software, what new hardware, what new techniques are available to scan animals, birds, insects or other creatures in 3D.
The SIGGRAPH Conferences are five educational days, 24-28 July, Anaheim, California.
SIGGRAPH 2016 exhibition is 26-28 July.
There are various web sites, one is www.s2016.siggraph.org. We hope to see you there in July.
Written by Diana Cruz & Vivian Diaz
Posted January 18, 2016
Monkeys, bats, jaguars, dogs, armadillos, coyote and fox, opossum, rabbits, peccary, deer, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders, scorpions, etc are pictured in the art of the Maya and of the Aztecs (and Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Teotihuacan, etc).
Eduard Seler gathered together drawings of all these species and published an approximately 150 page opus with over 1000 illustrations. This German monograph was translated decades ago, and then in the 1990’s edited by Frank Comparato, LABYRINTHOS.
Frank passed away last year, and we at FLAAR wish to bring back deserved mention of Frank Comparato’s contributions to Maya research (he was Field Director of the FLAAR mapping project at Yaxha, as but one example).
As soon as we can raise the funds to complete the scanning of this opus on Mayan animals, we will make it available for students on this FLAAR web site on the animals which were important to the Mayan people of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Posted January 4, 2016
For my birthday yesterday, I took Senaida to visit the La Aurora Zoo. The Zoo was packed with local visitors, plus several people from Europe and US who live and work in Guatemala. Senaida is the Q’eqchi’ Mayan speaking student intern who assists us to learn about the flora and fauna of Alta Verapaz, which is where she and her family live.
We focused on the animals which are native to Guatemala, but I will admit I enjoyed watching the mother hippopotamus instructing her baby hippo to follow her into the water. Since the water was over his depth, he tried to climb onto the slippery back of his mother.
Lots of construction going on, which means lots of new places to explore several months from now.
The Parque Zoológico Nacional La Aurora has excellent collection of owls: dozens of species are native to Guatemala. I was pleasantly surprised to see a melanistic black jaguar. Although named “black panther” in fact these are not panthers and not leopards (though melanistic black leopards also exist). The black jaguar is native to Mesoamerica and South America.
Here is a drawing of different natural colors of jaguars by Josefina, a Kakchiquel Mayan student intern at FLAAR. White are extremely rare, but do occur. The “black panthers” occur from gray to “solid black.” The one in the Parque Zoológico Nacional La Aurora is “solid black” but you can see the black spots underneath when the jaguar is wet and you have the correct viewing angle.
This trip to the zoo on January 3rd was to take notes for what animals we would like to photograph on our next visit. For example, we have never photographed coyotes or falcons here. Plus the collection of spider monkeys is zoologically interesting since there are many colors, from black with brown to pure brown with white.
The zoologists and staff at Parque Zoológico Nacional La Aurora are both knowledgeable and hospitable to research visits, which we appreciate.
