The Mexican hairless dog, known as the xoloitzcuintle or xolo from the Nahuatl language, is a hairless breed of dog. A genetic study of the modern xolo determined it is a result of breeding with domestic dogs brought by pre-Columbian indigenous Americans from Asia with European herding dog breeds from the time after Columbus.
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| Sign in the Dolores Olmedo Museum grounds. |
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| Statue of a xolo at the musuem. |
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| Another statue of the dog, made out of lava. |
Archaeological evidence points to the xolo being over 3,500 years old, extent with the Mayans and Aztecs. They were considered sacred and a great delicacy consumed for sacrificial purposes such as marriages and funerals.
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| Xolo at the Dolores Olmeda Museum. I had an opportunity to pet it and it was very friendly. |
The journals of Christopher Columbus in 1492 refer to a strange hairless dog.
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| Live xolo next to a statue of a xolo. |
The dog "Dante," from the Disney film "Coco" was a xolo.
I saw these xolos at the Doloros Olmedo Museum in Xochimilco, outside Mexico City.
This was a really awesome animal to see, and even more exciting because of the tie-in to the movie Coco.They really are weird animals!
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