Rainbow Jaguars and the Ahuizotl Connection

An artistic recreation of the rainbow jaguar.
Image credit Karl Shuker.

Perhaps the most well-known of the Central American Atzec myths - Quetzalcoatl notwithstanding - the Ahuizotl was described in the Florentine Codex as a real animal, a small aquatic predator with smooth hair and primate-like hands. Native Americans in the USA have myths about a very similar animal. If it was based on a real animal, it is today widely believed to have been a new species of otter or other mustelid.

In the field of more strictly Amazonian cryptozoology, there are a number of cryptids similar to the Ahuizotl, but larger.