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The shiashia-yawá is a cryptid felid reported from Ecuador by the Shuar people to Spanish cryptozoologist Angel Morant Forés, described as a speckled jaguar.[1][2]
According to the Shuar informants, the shiashia-yawá is "a spotted cat white in colour and smaller than a jaguar (Panthera onca) but bigger than an ocelot (Felis pardalis). An old Shuar from Sevilla-Don Bosco, Carlos Pichama, told [Forés] the fur of the shiashia is covered by solid black spots which are more tighly packed than the rosettes typical of jaguars". Another animal described by the Shuar, the tshenkutshen, is said to resemble the shiashia-yawá in its pelage.[1] Forés "collected two eyewitness reports from people who claimed to have killed this animal in the past".[1]
Forés noted that this animal may simply be an albino jaguar.[3] However, the informants uniformly described it as being smaller than a jaguar.[1] Diego Tirira suggests that it is the small oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), which is spotted, but has brown fur.[4]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Forés, Angel Morant Virtual Institute of Cryptozoology "An Investigation Into Some Unidentified Ecuadorian Mammals" cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr (12 October 1999) [Accessed 10 September 2018] — Wayback Machine
- ↑ Shuker, Karl P. N. (2010) Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times, CFZ Press, ISBN 978-1-905723-62-1
- ↑ Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Tirira, Diego (2009) Nombres de los Mamiferos del Ecuador