Reconstruction
of the possible appearance in life of Mexico's mysterious ruffed cat (created
by me using Grok X1)
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.
Artistic representation of the ruffed cat (© owner
of this illustration is unknown to me despite searching online, but I found the
illustration itself here on the Cryptid Wiki website,
where it is attributed to FreakingNews.com – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis only for educational/review purposes only)
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.
A third ruffed cat representation (created by me
using Grok X1)
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.
The two photos of the above-described Aztec
cuauhxicalli shaped like a mysterious ruffed cat (© Hodari Nundu/Anthropology
and History Museum, Mexico City – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial
Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
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.
The two editions of my Mystery Cats of the World book (© Dr Karl Shuker/Robert Hale
Limited/Coachwhip Publications)