When cryptozoologists think of Mexican mystery cats, the example that always comes instantly to mind is the onza – that elusive gracile enigma that may simply be a bona fide puma, taxonomically speaking, or may not be at all, because the controversy regarding its taxonomic status is still far from resolved (click here to read my detailed ShukerNature article on this subject, and check out my definitive book on feline cryptids, Mystery Cats of the World Revisited, for additional information).
However, it is by no means the only Mexican feline cryptid – I was aware of three others, but earlier this year Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu, who is also a longstanding friend of mine on Facebook, presented on his FB page some information regarding several additional ones. Not only that, he also prepared a series of exquisite full-colour illustrations of some of these creatures, and has now very kindly permitted me to include them in my exclusive coverage here on ShukerNature of his home country's fascinating diversity of lesser-known feline cryptids – thanks very much Hodari!
Having spent a very productive Christmas Day morning yesterday writing this article (living alone with no family any more, I enjoy Christmas in my own way, by doing what gives me pleasure and keeps my mind occupied, which is writing), its final sizeable word count persuaded me that it would be better served split into three separate, reader-friendly parts rather than presented as a single decidedly lengthy read. So that's what I've done. Herewith, therefore, is Part 1 (with Parts 2 and 3 following later this week), which I have devoted entirely to what may sound somewhat paradoxical – the best-known of these lesser-known Mexican mystery cats. Namely, the ruffed cat.
THE RUFFED CAT
I first documented this hitherto obscure Mexican mystery cat in my very first book, Mystery Cats of the World (1989), but expanded my coverage of it three decades later in that book's updated, greatly-enlarged second edition, the afore-mentioned Mystery Cats of the World Revisited. Here is what I wrote about it there:
The onza may still share Mexico with one other mystery felid. To my knowledge, however, this second crypto-cat's existence is based solely upon a single account, written by the American zoologist, veteran cryptozoologist, and popular writer Ivan T. Sanderson in the form of an article published in April 1973 by Pursuit - the official periodical of the Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained (SITU), which Sanderson founded. In his article, no name was allocated to the creature, but for reasons that will soon become evident, I shall refer to it here as the ruffed cat.
During 1940, travelling alone through Mexico on a mammalogical collecting trip, Sanderson arrived at an unnamed mountain settlement in the state of Nayarit's Sierra mountains. These are totally separated from the neighbouring Sierra Madre Occidentale ranges, and possess their own distinctive flora and fauna. At this settlement, a few locals spoke Spanish, and Sanderson let it be known that he was seeking specimens of a particular form of squirrel. The locals promised to obtain some for him, and in the meantime they brought along a number of skins of other mammals, in the hope of selling these to him too.
Amongst them was a large and very tough skin of a most unusual cat. The skin measured just over 6 ft from nose-tip to tail-base, with a further l.5 ft constituting its relatively short tail. Of course, it is difficult to say how closely these measurements reflected this cat's actual length when alive, because it would be virtually impossible to ascertain how much the skin had stretched or shrunk during drying. Intriguingly (in view of the onza), Sanderson noted: "The legs appeared to have been rather long compared to, say, a house-cat or a puma". The paws were still attached to the skin and were very large, well-furred, and splayed, with most of them still possessing their claws, which were bright yellow in colour and very clearly retractile. The cat's face was short (again like the onza).
The cat's pelage was firm dorsally, soft ventrally, and predominantly brown in colour. The head and shoulders lacked markings, but the flanks and upper limbs bore a series of wavy stripes in alternate light and dark shades of brown, whereas the lower limbs were very dark brown in colour, almost approaching black. The ridge of the spine running along its back was also dark brown, and (as far as Sanderson could recall) so too was the tail.
By far the most outstanding feature of the skin, however, was that the hairs sited just behind its shoulders appeared to grow forward to yield a large ruff encircling the neck and covering the ears from above and behind.
Sanderson stated that he bought this skin, and another smaller pelt of this same strange cat form that was in poorer condition but with sharper stripes. Together with other mammal skins that he bought, these felid pelts (which apparently cost a lot more than any of the others) were sewn up in several layers of sacking, and were finally stored in the government jail of Belize, which Sanderson was using as a base.
Tragically, however, during a subsequent trip the jail was lashed by a severe hurricane and, being at sea-level, was completely flooded out. As a result, everything not in bottles was totally ruined, including the skins.
This is a most compelling, but, sadly, rather intangible affair, because there is so little in the way of hard facts that can be followed up. The area itself is unnamed; the skins are lost; and Ivan Sanderson, who travelled there alone and hence was the only named eyewitness to them, can no longer be questioned, as he passed away in 1973. The only hope is the possible existence still of the jail - perhaps, if it does survive, records regarding the skins may too, which could add some details to the account left behind by Sanderson.
What could these mystery cats have been? Lynxes have relatively long legs and short tail, large paws, and thick fur around the neck, which can look a little like a ruff, but no lynx possesses anything remotely as extensive as the ruff described by Sanderson for the Mexican ruffed cat. Moreover, as a trained zoologist and a mammal collector, Sanderson would surely have compared its skins specifically with lynxes if they had appeared comparable with such. Instead, the detailed description that he gave does not fit that of any known felid.
The only sequel that I know of to this sorry saga is that Sanderson claimed that he later saw another skin of this very distinctive cat form on sale at a tourist store in the big market at Colima, situated at the south end of Nayarit's mountain block. Regrettably, however, the price that its owner was asking was far beyond what Sanderson could afford.
It would seem that the only way to follow up any aspect relating to the Mexican ruffed cat is to do what Sanderson suggested at the end of his article:
"…pay a visit to the market in Colima. They may still have unknown cat skins for sale."
They may indeed.
Since the publication of the present book's original edition in 1989, two additional snippets of information that may have possible relevance to the ruffed cat saga have come to my attention. The first of these was a brief but tantalising paragraph in Harold T. Wilkins's book Secret Cities of Old South America (1952):
"At Atitlan, in Guatemala, is another monstrosity carved on a big boulder. It takes the form of a cat with a sort of ruff at his throat, which points to the east. On top of the boulder is a basin, but what purpose this cavity served, unless to hold a human victim's sacrificial blood, is unknown."
Guatemala is of course situated immediately to the south of Mexico, and, indeed, only separated from it as an independent nation in its own right during the early 1800s. Consequently, it would not be implausible if the ruffed cat had once existed in Guatemala as well as in modern-day Mexico.
The second, related item is the following email posted on the cz@onelist.com cryptozoology discussion group by CFZ founder Jonathan Downes on 1 June 1998:
"I think that there is still evidence for there being a new and undiscovered species of large felid in Mexico. Across Mexico City, for example, there are a number of pieces of stylised statuary which appear to show a puma like animal with a brushlike mane like a punk-rocker's Mohican! This animal seems to be a well known archetype within the Mexican culture."
A mystery Mohican cat from Mexico – I like the sound of that!
In addition, on 6 June 2017 Hodari posted on my FB page the following thought-provoking information, plus two photos of the sculpture in question:
This is an Aztec "cuauhxicalli", a stone recipient meant to receive the heart of human sacrifices. This piece is from the Anthropology and History Museum at Mexico City. The curious thing about it is that, even though it is labelled as depicting a jaguar, it has two unusual traits that would suggest otherwise. For starters, it doesn't have any spots, which the Aztec were careful to etch in most jaguar representations. Also, there's that strange ruff on its cheeks, more reminiscent of a tiger or lynx than a jaguar. Cougars lack spots as adults but they don't have anything resembling this ruff. It can't be a bobcat because it has long tail and small round ears. So what is it? A fantastical creature, product of mixing jaguar, puma and bobcat features? Or maybe something else? A tiger? A surviving American lion? Unknown felid? I thought you'd find it interesting.
I certainly do find it interesting. Although its ruff is seemingly less pronounced than that of the skins procured by Sanderson (and its tail possibly longer), this Aztec-sculpted creature certainly doesn't correspond to any currently-known Mexican felid, as noted by Hodari, and is yet another example, therefore, of a mystifying cat from this country that sports a very noticeable ruff.
But where is the mystifying ruffed cat today? I know of not a single modern-day report of a living cat fitting its instantly-recognisable description.
How ironic it would be if the skins encountered by Sanderson were from the very last representatives of a felid so distinctive, and, seemingly, so greatly feared too, that in ages past humans had been sacrificed to a graven image of it, but which had subsequently slipped into extinction before the modern scientific world had even had time to acknowledge its existence. From deity to deceased, in just a few centuries?
Be sure to check out Parts 2 and 3 of this article, in which I document no fewer than six additional feline cryptids of the lesser-known Mexican variety, when I post them on ShukerNature later this week.
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