Onza

The Onza is a Kryptid, said to have lived in Central America at the time of the Spanish Conquistadores. It is about a cat who was known to the Aztecs under the name cuitlamiztli.

After the Spanish rapporteurs Onzas to have been held in private vivarium of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in addition Pumas ( leones ) and jaguars ( tigres ). Later, it was occasionally reported by Spanish settlers in the area around Sinaloa in Mexico from Onzas that should live next to cougars and jaguars here. Here told missionaries like the Jesuit Ignaz Pfefferkorn that the Onza dangerous and less restrained than was the Puma and it would regularly attacks on humans. Pfefferkorn, who claims to have 1757 to get a copy to face, described it in his 1794 published description of the country of Sonora. He describes there the Onza as a wolf-like cat with a compared to the Puma elongated, thin and narrow shaped body. The coat is reddish in color.

In the years 1938 and 1986 animals were shot in Sinaloa, which were identified as Onza. They resembled the Pumas, however, were slim built, had longer legs and longer ears and were spotted. Molecular biology of the animal from 1986 showed characteristic features of the Pumas from western North America, but the scientists have not ruled out the possibility of the Onza as a subspecies of cougar.

The scientific name for the jaguar Panthera onca. The Spanish word Onza is used both for the Jaguarundi and for the snow leopard.

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