Life-sized reconstruction of the North American
scimitar cat Homotherium serum (© Dr
Karl Shuker)
So far, in Parts 1 and 2 (click here
and here
to read them) of my comprehensive 3-part article on lesser-known Mexican
mystery cats, I have documented no fewer than six different examples,
incorporating a great deal of valuable information supplied to me on Facebook
by Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu, who is
also a longstanding friend of mine on FB. In addition, he has very kindly
permitted me to include in my article a number of his exquisite illustrations –
thanks Hodari!
And now, here is its third and final part, which
deals with one final, seventh feline cryptid from Mexico, but which may
conceivably be the most mysterious one of all.
THE CUITLAMIZTLI – MONTEZUMA'S WOLF-PUMA
You may have noticed previously in this lengthy article
that I have sometimes employed the less specific term 'feline cryptids' (rather
than consistently utilising 'mystery cats') when referring to its subjects –
and here's why. The subject under consideration here now was apparently feline
(i.e. cat-like) in superficial appearance but may not have actually been a bona
fide felid (i.e. a cat).
The creature in question is the cuitlamiztli, the mystifying
so-called wolf-puma or wolf-cat that was exhibited in the private zoo, the
Totocalli, of the Aztec emperor Montezuma (=Moctezuma) II (c.1471-1520) and was
seen there by one of the Spanish conquistadors – before their leader Hernán
Cortés ruthlessly authorized its total destruction in 1521, along with many
other significant buildings and edifices in the Aztec Empire's capital city,
Tenochtitlan. But what exactly was it – a wolf, a puma, or something else
entirely? Read on, and decide for yourself. Might Montezuma's cryptic 'wolf-cat' have looked something like these? (created by me using Magic Studio)
Here is what I wrote about this enigmatic beast in
my book Mystery Cats of the World
Revisited:
What may be the earliest known reference to this felid [the onza]
(although the term 'onza' was not actually used here) was made by Bernal Díaz
del Castillo (c.1496-1584) – under the command of the infamous conquistador
Hernán Cortés. In a report some time after having visited the famous zoo of the
Aztec king Montezuma, Castillo recorded seeing "tigers [jaguars] and lions
[pumas] of two kinds, one of which resembled the wolf". In view of the
wolf's long limbs and the corresponding characteristic of the onza, it is
traditionally assumed that Castillo's 'wolf-cat' (known to the Aztecs as the
cuitlamiztli) was indeed the onza...
Artistic representation of Montezuma's wolf-puma
as a bona fide felid (© Hodari Nundu
[However,] one further tantalising matter to consider regarding the
onza is whether it really is the same
creature as the 'wolf-cat' spied by Castillo in Montezuma's zoo. For although
one would naturally assume this to be the case, it is by no means conclusively
established. After all, despite its long limbs the onza does not really
resemble a wolf to any degree. Is it conceivable, therefore, that the Aztec 'wolf-cat'
was actually some other, still unknown beast? I would be inclined to dismiss
this idea totally – were it not for a certain tantalising fossil species.
Although more closely related to cats, hyaenas are quite dog-like
in outward appearance. Moreover, whereas typically looked upon as Old World
species, some hyaenas did exist at one time in the Americas too, which leads us
into the most fascinating aspect of this subject.
In several different Mexican localities, skeletons have been found
of a truly remarkable hyaena, which lived during the Pleistocene, i.e. a
contemporary of M. trumani [the
now-extinct Truman's cheetah – see Part 2 of this article]. However, this
species, the hunting hyaena Chasmaporthetes
ossifragus, shared much more than a geological time period and a
geographical locality with the latter American felid.
Artistic representation of a giant ground squirrel Paenemarmota confronting the hunting
hyaena Chasmaporthetes in Pliocene
Mexico (© Hodari Nundu)
For C. ossifragus was a
cursorial dog-like hyaena – possessing notably long, slender limbs, and a very
gracile body. In short, its appearance in life would have been the very epitome
of the descriptive term 'wolf-cat'. Is it possible that C. ossifragus did not die out during the Pleistocene, but instead persisted
at least to the time of the Aztecs in the more remote Mexican mountain lands?
No reports of such a creature are known today, hence even if it had survived to such a recent date, it
is surely extinct now.
I feel that it is less likely for Mexico's mountains to possess two
mystery gracile carnivores than one in modern times, especially when they may
have competed with one another to some extent, having adapted to occupy similar
ecological niches. Nevertheless, it is certainly a thought-provoking coincidence
that a creature fitting Castillo's description even more closely than the onza
should have existed within this very same country at least as late as the
Pleistocene.
In his
Facebook message to me of 13 January 2024 regarding the tiricuate (see Part 2
again), Hodari also suggested a new and, in view of a recent, very remarkable
discovery in Siberia (see below), very pertinent putative identity for
Montezuma's wolf-puma. Namely, the scimitar cat Homotherium, belonging to the taxonomic family of machairodontids
or sabre-toothed cats, all of which are officially long-extinct.
Two Homotherium
scimitar cats (© Hodari Nundu)
Here
is his suggestion:
You mention Chasmaporthetes [in my mystery cats
books] as a possible identity for the wolf-puma in Montezuma's zoo – have you
considered though the possibility of it being Homotherium itself? As far we know Chasmaporthetes died out around one million, 700,000 years ago. Homotherium was likely still around [in
Mexico, represented there by the North American species H. serum] in the late Pleistocene.
There's no
described remains from Mexico from this time, but the mummy* shows they were present in the late
Pleistocene in Eurasia where they were thought to die out earlier than in the
Americas so it wouldn't be a stretch to think some of them may have survived
late in Mexico.
[* =
the recently-described mummified anterior half of a three-week-old Homotherium latidens cub discovered in 2020 after its frozen
carcase had emerged from Siberian Upper Pleistocene permafrost – click here to read the official scientific paper documenting
this unique, spectacular find, which was approximately 35,500 years old, making
it the youngest-known Asian specimen of Homotherium, and see photo below]
The last Homotherium species were rather
wolfish-bodied, endurance runners, long legs, relatively small paws with
semi-retractable claws – already pretty wolf-like in that regard. Their jaws
would be longer. Their front incisors are protruding. Those are potentially
wolf-like features too.
Of course Homotherium was much bigger than a wolf
or a puma as far we know but we would be talking about the southernmost
population of Homotherium in North
America, meaning maybe Bergmann's rule would apply [i.e. within a broadly
distributed taxonomic clade, populations and species of larger size are found in colder regions,
whereas populations and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions].
Cat food for
thought!
Absolutely!
Hodari's insightful comments
provide a fascinating new line of well-reasoned speculation to ponder over
concerning the nature of Montezuma's mystery specimen. The mummified Homotherium cub's discovery was
extremely dramatic – the first time that physical remains (other than
fossilised bones) of a semi-complete machairodontid had ever been procured – so
how truly incredible it would be if researchers one day revealed that a living
machairodontid species had persisted until as recently as the 1500s in Mexico,
or anywhere else for that matter! The head of the three-week-old Homotherium latidens scimitar cat discovered in frozen, mummified condition in Siberia and formally documented in 2024 (© A.V. Lopatin et al., 2024/Wikipedia –CC BY 4.0 licence)
In summary re my 3-part
article: I have to ask whether it is credible that even a country as large and
ecologically diverse as Mexico could at one time or another have been home to
no fewer than eight feline cryptids (including the onza). Might it be more
prudent to assume that certain of these mystery cats (or cat-like entities) are
synonymous with certain others? Having said that, none of them appears to be
based merely upon distorted descriptions of any present-day species known to
exist here. Perhaps, therefore, if indeed real, some of them are actually
already known to science but as various officially extinct, prehistoric species
whose erstwhile existence in Mexico is confirmed by fossil evidence, yet which
may have lingered elusively into the present.
As ever in cryptozoology,
without physical contemporary evidence of them that can be formally examined, there
is no means of verifying the reality of any of the mystery beasts reported here
(if only Sanderson's ruffed cat skins had survived – see Part 1). Nevertheless,
documenting these reports of them is the next best procedure, to ensure that
such details are readily available for perusal by other researchers and are
therefore never lost – even though, sadly, at least some of these creatures
themselves may well be.
Once
again, I wish to thank Hodari most sincerely for his kindness in permitting me
to include his illustrations here and for sharing such fascinating crypto-felid
information with me.
No
article on Mexican mystery cats, lesser-known or otherwise, would be complete
without at least one onza-related illustration, so here is the front cover of
the definitive book on this crypto-cat (© Neil B Carmony/High-Lonesome Books –
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)