THE MEXICAN ONZA LEGEND

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The World Unexplained, the a podcast that explores the unusual beliefs, conspiracies, customs,
rituals and traditions from around the world. This is your host,
Doctor Carlos.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
We go back to Mexico to look at the Big
onza O n Z, the Big Cat Mexican legend. We'll
find out about it. By the way, folks, if you
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(00:59):
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OFFLUS free shipping. So back to our story. In the
nineteen thirties, Dale and Clell Lee started a successful hunting
guide business in the Sierra Moderate Mountains of Sonora, Mexico.

(01:20):
They took American clients over there for hunting expeditions, and
one client, Joseph Shirk, wanted to hunt jaguars in the
state of Sonaloa. That's right, the cartel territory, but this
is the way before the carts actually was developed. On
this trip, they shot and killed a large feline that
did not fit the description of a jaguar or the cougar.
The brothers believed they had discovered at Onza Onza, a

(01:42):
legendary Mexican predator that only been described in rumors and
historical accounts. They share their story with zoologists and the press,
but were not taken seriously. So years later an author
by the name of Robert Marshall interviewed the Lees and
published a book called The Onza, which discussed their experience
see the on It was pre Hispanic Aztec accounts mentioned
a third large cat in the western part of the

(02:03):
empire called Kutla Muntsley, Emperor Montezuma Zoo and Tony Quitlan
had specimens of this animal and it's collection. The Spanish
explorer Bernal Diaz Castillo described three types of large cats
in the zoo, including tigers which would be considered jaguars,
two kinds of lines. The second line has been a mystery,
with some suggesting it may have been the actual Kula Metzli,

(02:25):
or what later became known as the Onza Oenza. However,
others have a ledge of Diaz described the second line
as being something like a wolf, which was not supported
by the original writings, and it's more likely that they
were probably describing some kind of coyote, maybe an oversized coyote.
For that matter, nobody really knows exactly what it could

(02:45):
be describing, but who knows. Sent Two centuries after Bernal Diaz,
the Jesuits of the first Western fringes of New colonial
Spain described the Onza and the two volume treatise. He wrote,
great respect for this back huge cat, and it says
here quote is not as timid as the cougar, and
he who ventures to attack it must be well on guard.

(03:05):
Another priest wrote in a letter to his family in France,
and an Onza dared to invade his neighbour's mission when
he was visiting and attacked a fourteen year old boy.
So we see other stories of the Mexican Ans that
trickled out of the Great Cat's territories over the ensuing centuries,
and besides the story of the Lee brothers in the thirties,
they have been few other reports of this creature to
gain attention to the outside world. It may not even

(03:25):
be alive anymore, if it ever did exist. In nineteen
twenty six, cowboy CB Ruggles supposedly shot in Onza near
the Yaqui River in the state of Sonora. Ruggles took
photos of the creature and wrote about its sleek body
and cat's thin, spotted legs. Sometime before nineteen thirty at
American naturalist Frank Dobby reported shooting in Anza that I
was caught in a trap. He supposedly skinned the cat,

(03:47):
but the pelt did not survive a bug infestation and disintegrated.
These few reports that did make it out of Mexico
attracted derision from scientists, who often claimed that people citing
the mythical cat were misidentifying just a common cougar. Thirty
seven years ago, an unusual encounter happened. Theonsa only really
began to peak the interest of cryptozoologists for those who
seek to discover legendary creatures, and Mexican rancher Andre Morillo

(04:11):
shot an enormous cat on his Sinaloa ranch. The rancher
fired on the creatures it was about to attack him.
Rodriguez later gave a detailed description what he shot. It
was not a cougar or jaguar, but much larger. They
also had large years and dark markings. So is it
possible that this animal exists out there? I don't know.
They have a lot of people looking for it. They

(04:32):
have some cryptologists going out there. Richard J. Greenwell or
Jay Richard Greenwell, at the time the secretary of the
International Society of Cryptology. He had particular interests in the
Zada and Deonza and already managed to track down examine
two alleged ons of skulls. After sufficient back and forth,
the specimen made it to the Regional Diagnostic Laboratory of
Animal Pathology belonging to Mexico's Ministry Agriculture. Under the direction

(04:55):
of American cougar researcher Troy Best, A Mexican team carefully
dissected the huge cat, and upon the inspection, the cat
appeared to be described by the native people. It had
a remarkable garcialed body with long, slender legs. Ears almost
seemed very long for a puma, which some other things
like small horizontal stripes are also not found on pumas.

(05:18):
A wait about twenty seven kilos, fell within the normal
range of female pumas. The tail, however, was seventy three
centimeters long, very long for a female puma of comparable size.
The team of examining the specimen sent the blood in
and tissue samples that Texas Tech preliminary investigation was inconclusive.
Greenwell and Best did not follow up with any scientific

(05:38):
publications regarding the supposed onnza. The vague outcomes from this
investigation led researchers to four possible conclusions. This could be
previously an unknown species, perhaps surviving an example of the
prehistoric cheetah. This could be a naturally occurring hybrid, which
is Mike guess of a cougar and a jaguar, or
some other type of hybrid the specimen that was found.

(05:58):
Others could be mutant form of a common cougar. Or
this could be a geographically specific subspecies of a cougar
unique to northwestern Mexico. One thing we do know is
whatever it is does exist, and what it is, for
some reason, didn't seem to pique the interest enough for
the researchers, But there you go. So does the big
the mix thinking ONZA exist? I think it really does,

(06:22):
but what it is is a bigger question.