Alexander "Sasha" Siemel was an American/Argentinian adventurer, professional hunter, guide, actor, writer, photographer, and lecturer of Latvian origin. He spoke seven languages and boasted of having experienced more adventure in a single year than most men had witnessed in a lifetime. He is known among sportsmen, claiming to have successfully hunted more than 300 jaguars — or onças, as the big cats are colloquially known in parts of Latin America—in the Mato Grosso jungles of Brazil. Siemel's accomplishments in pursuing the large and often dangerous jaguar (the biggest cat in the Western Hemisphere and third-largest in the world) are all the more impressive because on many of his hunts, he was allegedly armed only with a spear.