My Year of Darwin 3/30/2014: Jaguars or drunks?

"On the Parana they have killed many wood-cutters, and have even entered vessels at night. There is a is a man now living in the Bajada, who, coming up from below when it was dark, was seized on the deck; we escaped, however, with the loss of the use of one arm." -Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

If these stories are accurate then I was in considerable danger and just lucky I wasn't killed (and devoured) but I suspect that the jaguar is blamed for murders done by people with machetes and axes. All very disturbing if you think about it, I think I'd rather be killed by a jaguar - seems much quicker. 

When I did come across the tracks, especially when they were on top of mine and going in the same direction (so they followed out to the forest), the hair on the back of neck would raise and I would get the eeby-geebies. I came across a hair ball of one that was filled with giant anteater hair. The size was between a baseball and a softball. 

One did kill a cow when I was there and the ranchers ended up shooting that one. We had extra beef which we cut into thin strips and dried on the barbed wire fence surrounding the camp. What kept the flies off? Nothing, the drying meat was covered in them. Once dried the jerky was chopped and added to the bean stew. I lived.