Case file · Cryptid
The onza shot in Sinaloa
On 1 January 1986 a rancher in the Sierra Madre of Sinaloa shot a lean, long-legged big cat that locals called an onza, a puma-like animal described by Jesuit missionaries in the 1700s and long considered a separate species.
1986 CE · 23.95, -106.40 · status: explained
The account
The carcass was examined at the University of Sinaloa and became a cause célèbre in cryptozoology after Neil Carmony's 1995 book 'Onza!'. The coordinates are approximate.
The sceptical view
DNA testing of tissue from the 1986 animal showed it was a puma. Earlier 'onza' skulls in collections are also puma or puma-like.