Onza

As a more recent series of anecdotes goes, in 1938, and again in 1986, an unknown number of cougar-like animals shot in Sinaloa were identified as "onza" by some unknown parties.

One such story says that in 1938, hunters Dale and Clell Lee, with Indiana banker Joseph Shirk, shot what locals called an "onza" near La Silla Mountain in Sinaloa. Dale Lee was certain that the animal they shot was not a "puma". Although somewhat resembling what some think is a "puma" in coloration, its ears, legs, and body were longer, and it was built more lightly than a what they called a puma.

In this legend, the only viable specimen to have been examined was contributed by a rancher named Andres Murillo. In January 1986, he shot what he thought was a jaguar attacking him. Although there's no explanation of who proved it or how, the story goes on to say that it was proved not to be a jaguar. Murillo brought the specimen to a person identified only as "Vega", who was said to own a nearby ranch. There it was found to be a female weighing 60 lb (27 kg) and measuring 45 inches (1.1 m) long without the 23 inches (58 cm)-long tail. The story claims the animals were much like cougars but had lighter frames with longer, striped legs, longer ears, and a longer tail. It also claimed this particular cat had the appearance of a cougar with a very long, thin body and long, thin, doglike legs. Deer had been found in its stomach, supposedly indicating that it had eaten recently. The ranch owner referred to as Vega told Murillo that the specimen greatly resembled what he called an "onza" that his father had shot in the 1970s, the skull of which he still had.

In another version of this legend, it wasn't Andres Murillo but two people named Rodriguez and Ricardo Zamora who were deer hunting at about 10:30 p.m. when they came across a large cat which seemed ready to charge. Fearing a jaguar attack, Rodriguez shot it. Seeing that it was not a jaguar or a puma, they took the body back to Rodriguez's ranch and Rodriguez contacted a Mr. Vega, who owned a nearby ranch and was an experienced hunter. This person known as Vega said that the cat was an onza and that it was nearly identical to one that his father had shot in the 1970s (the skull of the Vega animal had allegedly been preserved). Mr. Vega in turn contacted a Ricardo Urquijo, Jr., who suggested taking the animal's body to Mazatlán for examination. There, the cat was found to have a large wound on one of the rear legs which both Rodriguez and Mr. Vega believed to have been inflicted by a jaguar. It was also found to have been in good health with a fully functional reproductive system.

In another version of the Mr. Vega legend, it was actually the farmer Andres Murillo who owned the ranch in the San Ignacio District of Sinaloa and who killed an animal similar to the one shot by Dale and Clell Lee.

DNA testing confirmed that the Sinaloa specimen was a well-known subspecies of cougar and not an American cheetah or an unknown species.[2]

In another legend, it was claimed that researchers from Texas Tech University examined a frozen onza corpse in the 1990s but concluded that it was most likely a genetic variant of the cougar and not a distinct species. The story says that DNA testing had shown the specimen to be another known, but unmentioned, cat species with no significant difference between it and any other cat of that species.