What is onza?

onza may or may not be a wild cat from Mexico. Onza is certainly a cryptid, an animal whose existence is doubtful and whose study is the province of cryptozoologists. Bernal Diaz del Castillo wrote in 1520 that there were two kinds of a lion among the carnivorous animals, one of which was long ears like a wolf. All American carnivores were new in Spanish and used well -known animals as reference points. Soon afterwards, a similar animal appears in the tricifal compilation of the Aztec tradition called Florentine Codex. The Aztecs called it Cuitlamtli, nahatl a word that is now difficult to translate. In Codex, he is given as "Glutton Cat" because he was told he ate all his prey and then slept for days. The "ringing" translation suggests his patterned fur: "Mitzli" Samrred to Puma. When Spain occupied and colonized the former Aztec empire, they also saw an animal in the wild and gave it the name onza.

deficiencyIt makes sense; If the animal in its environment is an accessory, its name is sufficient as a description and there is no need to write about its characteristics. During the 18th century, European missionaries recorded new Sonora, a Mexican state far from the former Aztec empire, alarming the presence of this large and particularly dangerous creature, but described its appearance just like Puma.

In 1938 she shot and killed and killed and killed a large unusual cat that local people identified as onza; Those who saw it said that his ears were significantly longer than Cougar and a slimmer frame. Another strange cat killed in 1986 gave the most USEful evidence concerning the nature of Onza. Rancher showed the body that his father shot the same kind of animal and that it was onza. This one was photographed: It looks like a long leg and a very thin bomb. The zoologist who examined the body also performed DNA tests, and concluded that although slimmer and self -retracting claws, the cat was not genetically different from the bomb.This has relaxed that onza can be a living relic of prehistoric American cheetah.

Onza can then be a recurring variant of the bombs. Alternatively, a thin cat killed in 1987 does not have to be historical onza or citlamitztli at all, but a completely different animal. Onza, from Latin for "leopard", is a flexible word in terms of cats. Jaguarondi, a small and non -aggressive wild cat, is called onza in some areas of its habitat. OCA, the Portuguese variant onza, is a Brazilian word for Leopard. The word is also related to "Lynx" and an outdated English word for Leopard, "ounce".

Castillo's description is brief and vague, part of the long catalog of miracles found in the amazing Montezum zoo. Rather than looking at the kind of cat, perhaps he saw such a dog, maybe something like a hyena. This last option introduces another extinct species: chasmaportes ossifragus, the only related hyena in North America, the animal of the Pleistocene. Not at all likely to be what CastilloHe saw as a wolf-lva, but it is possible. It is also possible that onza on Spanish and citlamitztli from the Aztecs, whether the same animal or not, they are extinct themselves.