Ahuitzotl

Auítzotl (sometimes rendered as Ahuitzotlor Axayacatl) l was the Aztec ruler of the city of Tenochtitlán. He took power as Tlatoani in 1486, after his predecessor Tízoc was poisoned. Perhaps the greatest known military leader of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, he began his reign by suppressing a Huastec rebellion, and then swiftly more than doubled the size of lands under Aztec dominance. He conquered the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other peoples from Mexico's Pacific coast down to the western part of Guatemala. Auitzotl also supervised a major rebuilding of Tenochtitlán on a grander scale.

Auitzotl was succeeded in 1502 by his son, Moctezuma II (the famous "Montezuma" humiliated by Cortés).

The Aztec king Ahuitzotl took the Ahuitzotl as his mascot, but it appears the Aztecs thought of it as a creature in its own right, and not merely a mythical beast representing the king.