Did Moctezuma really own a zoo?
The last of the Aztec emperors, Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, housed a large collection of live animals, said by some to form a zoo, within the luxurious confines of his palace. Some investigators, however, think that these animals represented ‘nahualtin’, the gods’ animal representatives on earth. According to their theory, the animals would have been religious symbols, not mere amusements for the emperor and his entourage. Tezcatlipoca, himself, was represented in various animal forms, as a coyote, lobster, monkey, turkey and vulture. In his regal form of jaguar, he represented darkness, earth and femininity. At the end of the First Sun or age, of which Tezcatlipoca was regent, Quetzalcoatl defeated him in one of their many battles, by turning him into a jaguar (then considered to be the most powerful animal in Mesoamerica).
