In Part 1 of my ShukerNature blog article on lesser-known Mexican mystery cats (please click here to read it, and also click here to read my earlier ShukerNature article documenting Mexico's best-known mystery cat, the onza), I documented the mystifying ruffed cat, some skins of which were actually procured by American zoologist and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson while visiting Mexico, only for them to be destroyed when the building in which they had been deposited by him for safe-keeping was flooded – isn't that always the way with cryptozoological specimens?!
Now, here in Part 2 I am casting my metaphorical nets much wider, to take in no fewer than five additional feline cryptids from this self-same North American country, most of which were brought to my attention by Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu on Facebook, where we have been friends for many years. In addition, Hodari has very kindly permitted me to include in this present article a number of his wonderful illustrations – thanks Hodari!
So, without further ado, let's commence our survey of these five additional feline cryptids of Mexico, beginning with the mazamiztli or deer-cat.
THE MAZAMIZTLI
On 22 and 23 January 2024, Hodari posted on his Facebook page some fascinating details regarding a third Mexican mystery cat, seemingly distinct from both the onza and the ruffed cat.
Hodari noted that in his 1570s magnum opus Historia Natural de la Nueva España, dealing with the wildlife of what is nowadays Mexico, Spanish naturalist Francisco Hernández de Toledo wrote about an intriguing, unidentified beast referred to locally as the mazamiztli. This name is a combination of two others, both of Nahuatl (imperial Aztec) origin – maza ('deer') and miztli ('puma'). Hernández stated that it was called by this compound name due to its combining various deer traits and puma traits, but unfortunately he did not elaborate further.
However, a second author, the 16th-Century Franciscan missionary priest and Aztec scholar Friar Bernardino de Sahagún, did provide additional details. He stated that the mazamiztli is the size and colour of deer, and also possesses paws and (in males) antlers like deer, but it sports the very sharp claws and fangs of a puma, and it does not eat grass like deer. Instead, it walks among deer and when hungry it seizes one of these unsuspecting creatures, disembowels it with its claws, and eats its entrails. Apparently, the mazamiztli looks so similar to real deer that it can only be distinguished by them via its foul smell (so presumably it hunts downwind of them to conceal its scent?).
Recalling that the onza is itself supposedly gracile like deer, might this cat and the mazamiztli simply be one and the same? However, the onza has its own, separate Nahuatl name, cuitlamiztli ('wolf-puma') – but see also Part 3 of my article for further, potentially conflicting details regarding this name.
Having said that, the mazamiztli seems irresistibly like a feline version of the South American maned wolf Chrysocyon brachyurus, whose very elongate limbs and extra-large ears make it look remarkably deer-like in superficial appearance.
Consequently, I have wondered if what we are dealing with here is a sexually dimorphic feline species, i.e. with the onza aka cuitlamiztli conceivably being one sex of this species and the mazamiztli being the other, visibly different sex. Certainly, males are often noticeably larger or burlier than females in a number of different cat species. However, Fr Bernardino's inclusion of antlers as a male mazamiztli characteristic argues against this creature being real rather than folkloric.
It would be very interesting if more information regarding this Mexican mystery beast is unearthed in the future, and it is very encouraging to know that serious researchers such as Hodari are actively perusing historical manuscripts that have not previously attracted specific cryptozoological attention. Who knows what other discoveries may be made in this way?
THE LEONCILLO
And as if three Mexican mystery cats were not extraordinary enough, I also received in January 2024 some information concerning a potential fourth one!
It took the form of a short account posted on 8 January beneath my ShukerNature blog article on the onza (click here) by a reader based in Mexico. The reader did not reveal their name, but affirmed their long fascination regarding the onza and then provided some thought-provoking information concerning not only this cat but also a smaller, separate feline form that they termed the leoncillo.
The older members of the reader's Jalisco-inhabiting family have spoken about this animal, which they liken to a diminutive lion with a small mane. The reader showed their uncle a picture of an Asiatic lion, which famously has a much smaller, sparser mane than African lions and is smaller in stature too, and the uncle replied that this is exactly what the leoncillo looks like. Moreover, even its name translates as 'little lion'.
Could this creature be one and the same as the ruffed cat? I gave the latter crypto-cat that name in the apparent absence of any known local name for it, but perhaps its local name is leoncillo. Alternatively, might the leoncillo genuinely be a fourth Mexican mystery cat in its own right?
Yet although Mexico is a very large country, with plenty of remote mountainous areas, could it truly harbour no fewer than a quartet of mystery cats? Without any physical evidence to examine for at least three of them (or maybe all four if, as I suggested a while back, the alleged Rodriguez onza specimen wasn't a true onza after all, but merely a puma that looked like one), at this point we simply can't say. In any case, as will now be revealed, the Mexican mystery cat count doesn't even stop at four...
THE TLALMIZTLI
In his afore-mentioned 1570s magnum opus Historia Natural de la Nueva España, dealing with the wildlife of what is today Mexico, Spanish naturalist Francisco Hernández de Toledo has been revealed by Hodari to have written about not one but two Mexican mystery cats. One is the mazamiztli, but the other is very different, the tlalmiztli.
Providing details on his Facebook page on 26 January 2024, Hodari notes that this unidentified felid was said by Hernández to be smaller than a domestic cat but with a face like a lion, and despite its small size was very ferocious. Hernández also stated that a specimen of what he felt likely to have been this same mysterious species had been sent from Isla Margarita (in modern-day Venezuela) to the King of Spain but, tragically, it had died during the long sea voyage to Spain. Once again, it resembled a very small lion.
Hodari speculated that it may have possibly been the jaguarundi Herpailurus yagouaroundi, a lithe, slender, low-slung, and very long-tailed wild cat slightly larger than a domestic cat, which is native to much of South America (including Venezuela) and Central America, with its range stretching up as far north as northern Mexico in North America, with occasional specimens documented in the USA. To my mind, however, it looks if anything more like a miniature lioness than a lion as far as potential leonine comparisons are concerned. Another possible identity candidate suggested for it by Hodari is a kinkajou Potos flavus, that small golden-furred Latin American procyonid related to raccoons and coatis.
I am reminded of the leoncillo, the maned lion-like Mexican mystery cat that I've documented earlier here, but this was not said to have been smaller than a domestic cat. So, just like the latter animal and also the mazamiztli, the tlalmiztli currently remains an anomaly.
Incidentally, worth noting here is that the jaguarundi is most closely related to the puma (aka cougar and mountain lion) Puma concolor. Indeed, some authorities actually classify it as Puma yagouaroundi, and these two species collectively form a sister clade to the Old World cheetah Acinonyx jubatus, a species that as recently as the Pleistocene possessed gracile puma-like New World relatives, housed in the genus Miracinonyx. In fact, a surviving Miracinonyx cheetah, specifically Truman's cheetah M. trumani (which officially became extinct 12,000 years ago), is one identity that has been proposed in the past for the onza.
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THE TIRICUATE
On 13 December 2024, I received from Hodari via Facebook a message containing some information regarding yet another Mexican mystery cat. This one is called the tiricuate. It is said to inhabit the area around Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, in the state of Jalisco, and Hodari speculates that this cat may derive its name from 'tilcuate', a name often applied by the locals to a snake. It is described as a black arboreal cat sporting a very long tail, and it attacks people, hence it is quite feared.
Hodari once saw a taxiderm specimen of a cat resembling a giant jaguarundi (see below). Consequently, he wonders if that specimen and the tiricuate may be related.
As is well known, the jaguarundi exists in two discrete colour phases, both of which can occur within a single litter. One of these phases is bright red to dull brown and is known as the eyra (it was once mistakenly thought to be a separate species in its own right), the other is ash-grey to black in colour. This latter version certainly resembles the tiricuate based upon Hodari's description, and jaguarundis are indeed arboreal.
So whereas a normal-sized jaguarundi is too small to pose a threat to humans, perhaps an extra-large variety does also exist – one that is big enough, and savage enough, to be capable of attacking people?
A GIANT TAXIDERM JAGUARUNDI?
Following my request to Hodari for details concerning the intriguing taxiderm specimen of a cat resembling a giant jaguarundi that he had once seen in Mexico, I received the following in-depth account of it from him via Facebook on Christmas Day 2024:
Let's see. This happened in the early 2000s – most likely between 2000 and 2003. Sadly I didn't have a camera and of course smartphones weren't a thing yet so I am relying on my memory for this, but my memory is quite good for creature related experiences. The place was a town in Jalisco (my home state) called Mazamitla (from Nahuatl, "place where deer are hunted with arrows" – you might recognize the word mazatl, deer, because of the mazamiztli).
Anyway this is a town about 124 km south of Guadalajara. People from the city often visit it on weekends or holidays to rest and enjoy nature: it is located in a mountainous region which is largely covered on pine forests. I went there with my family on vacation. It is not uncommon for hotels or restaurants in Jalisco to have taxidermied animals but usually it is deer's heads or various birds so I was taken by this cat I saw on a restaurant, the name of which unfortunately I can't remember. It was one of those countryside restaurants so common in Jalisco (I imagine in much of Mexico) that sell sheep and goat meat dishes that you'd be hard pressed to find in the city.
The cat was mounted at a certain height so that it looked like it was perched near the ceiling waiting to pounce. The mount was quite good and naturalistic. I immediately identified it as a jaguarundi based on the following traits:
- Plain brown coat, richer and darker than a puma's.
- Lack of the puma's distinctive black and white muzzle markings.
- short rounded ears.
- shorter, wider face overall.
- shorter limbs compared to the body than in a puma.
- long, rectangular shaped torso without the characteristic higher rump of the puma (due to long jumping legs).
- Fur had a sort of grizzled or agouti-patterned appearance so that even though the animal's color was plain, the individual hairs must have been tipped or streaked with light and dark bands. This is very common in jaguarundi but not so much in puma.
Having worked as a zookeeper in a park that kept jaguarundi, I was very familiar with them, and my brain wanted to identify this as a jaguarundi because it definitely leaned more towards it than towards puma, but the problem was the size. Even assuming the skin could be somewhat stretched (which wasn't evident to me at the time as the mount looked natural with no obvious distortions), it still would have been a c. 30 kg cat in life which is far superior to the size of any jaguarundi (but comparable in size to the prehistoric Puma pumoides, which is believed to have been closer to jaguarundi than to puma [and is known from fossil remains uncovered in Argentina]).
Unfortunately like I said I had no camera or smartphone back then, nor was I able to find out more about the specimen. I would assume that it was hunted somewhere in the vicinity since the mounted animals you see in these sorts of place usually are. Also there's a rich tradition of mystery cat sightings in Jalisco, most of which are thrown under the catch all moniker of onza. Many Jaliscan biologists and photographers will tell you that the onza is the jaguarundi, but this doesn't explain the wild disparity in size between the regular jaguarundi and the cats reported to be large enough to attack people, and described as in between the jaguarundi and puma in size, or even puma-sized but with different proportions. I have collected a few sighting reports from people in my region and most of them are adamant that the onza is not the puma, and that it is too big to be jaguarundi.
My hypothesis is that there's a third form of acinonychine cat [i.e. in addition to the puma and the jaguarundi] in Jalisco (and possibly elsewhere since Mazamitla is close to the border with neighboring state Michoacán) that is more closely related to the jaguarundi (or at least LOOKS to be), and is sized between the jaguarundi and puma. It is consistently reported from mountain areas which means:
- it might be a form of jaguarundi evolving larger size as a response to the decline of larger predators like puma and jaguar.
- it might be a form of jaguarundi that evolved larger size as a response to colder climate in higher altitudes.
- it might be a relic of the Pleistocene, a larger acinonychine that hasn't been properly identified yet and which (as is known from other Mexican endémics) may have been more widespread during glacial periods but is now isolated in cold regions in mountain ranges.
As such it might be a new species, subspecies, or even a giant jaguarundi population stretching the size range of the species beyond what we thought possible. After all, the jaguarundi still is poorly known.
Any of the above options regarding the identity of extra-large jaguarundis would be exciting. So too would the rediscovery of the taxiderm specimen seen by Hodari in that Mazamitla restaurant, but whether after two decades it is still there can only be determined if the restaurant in question can be identified, visited (if still in existence), and, if this specimen is indeed still there, photographed and asked questions about its origin and history. If a sample of its fur could also be procured (but only with the owner's permission, naturally), that would be of great value scientifically, as a basis for conducting comparative trichological studies. Consequently, if (so many 'ifs'!) anyone reading this blog article of mine is thinking of visiting Mazamitla, be sure to look out for a restaurant there containing such a specimen!
Incidentally, as Hodari describes its pelage colour as brown, it would appear to have been a specimen of the jaguarundi's eyra (red/brown) colour phase – always assuming, of course, that it were indeed a normal (albeit extra-large) jaguarundi. For in addition to his above-quoted description, Hodari has also mentioned to me that its head was bigger and its tail shorter than those of a normal jaguarundi, and that he has sought to depict these distinguishing features in his illustration of it.
In the time-honoured tradition of saving the best – or at least the most mysterious – to the last, be sure to check out the third, final part of this article when I post it on ShukerNature later this week, because its subject is so strange that although apparently feline in superficial appearance it may prove to be something very different indeed taxonomically from any bona fide felid. I'm referring of course to Montezuma's wolf-puma, so don't miss it!
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