Though most rodents are small (i.e.,mice) the largest extant rodent, the South American capybara (capibara) or carpincho (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), can weigh up to 80 kg (180 lb.)
Carpincho is the name given by the Spanish speakers of the River Plate region to the capybara, a word originated from its Guaraní language name “capiigüá.”
It is found across the South American wetlands and in the basins of the Orinoco, Amazon and Paraná-Plata rivers. It is well adapted to living in this habitat. The carpincho is an aquatic hog-like animal, stout and with thick, bushy reddish hair. They have partially webbed feet.
In Patagonia?
In the northernmost tip of Patagonia (36°50’S, 70°40’W - spot marked with a yellow star in our online map.) at the confluence of the Varvarco and Neuquén Rivers, Alegría and Belver compiled reports from the locals about the presence of a four-legged creature that had been seen there/p>
"In the pools of the Varvarco and Neuquén in front of Invernada Vieja, it is a ‘bear’… the size of a small calf, with fins on its front legs… some maintain that it could be the survivor of the extinct ‘huillines’ (of the carpincho type) that existed in large amounts in this area, large as pigs, which were hunted because with their hairy hide they made excellent saddle mat."
See : Alegría, H. and Belver, I. (2007). Tradiciones del Norte Neuquino. Neuquén, Argentina, Escritores del Caleuche. pp 187. Cited by Eduardo G. y Marina Ottone. (2021) Coipos, huillines y el oso de varvarco. Historia Natural (tercera serie), 11 (1): 149-163.
The huillines mentioned above are Patagonian Otters (Lontra provocax), but note how the authors describe it as being "of the carpincho type", what do they mean by that? A fat, big otter? Being the size of a calf is quite large. There is no such type of otters in Patagonia. The most parsimonious explanation is that they were actual capybaras (carpinchos).
Map
Our interactive map shows the main rivers in northern Patagonia and how they could be linked to the Plata-Paraná basin.
Sowé or Soven
There was another reference to capybaras in La Pampa, by a woman of native ancestry, Mrs. Ángela Mariqueo who was a Ranquel. She gave the creature a Ranquel name: “Soven” or “Sowé”. Stieben wrote about here description, and commented: "she described it as a fierce animal of the lagoons of the central part of La Pampa province." See the wetland and lagoons in my map.
Carpinchos don't seem fierce, in fact they are quite tame and non-aggressive. Which makes me wonder why would Mariqueo describe them like that.
However, this supports the idea that the capybara reached the Wetlands of Bañados del Atuel following the Salado and Vallimanca Rivers, the Encadenadas (chained) lakes and then the more or less wet temporary lagoons along the Utracán and General Acha valleys (all marked in my map). From the wetlands they could have spread across the Curacó-Salado basin, into the Colorado River and then, after bridging an arid gap, reached the Neuquén, Negro and Limay rivers.
Currently (source: Bolkovic, María Luisa; Quintana, Rubén; Cirignoli, Sebastián; Perovic, Pablo G.; Eberhardt, Ayelen; Byrne, Soledad; Bareiro, Ricardo ; Porini, Gustavo (2019). Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris. En: SAyDS–SAREM (eds.) Categorización 2019 de los mamíferos de Argentina según su riesgo de extinción. Lista Roja de los mamíferos de Argentina) they can be found further north, but close to the Patagonia.
They have been seen in La Pampa, along the Quinto River between the towns of Sarah and Larroudé (red marker in my map).
They are also reported in the Southwestern region of Buenos Aires province, west of Bahía Blanca and Sierra de la Ventana. It is connected to the Vallimanca-Salado Rivers basin and to the "chained" lakes (Encadenadas).
Another route of access into Patagonia was the now submerged continental shelf, which during the peak of the Pleistocene ice ages, was exposed and covered a vast area with vegetation, rivers and forests. Research provides additional proof; a paper published in 2024 (Pinaya, J.L.D., Pitman, N.C.A., Cruz, F.W. et al. Humid and cold forest connections in South America between the eastern Andes and the southern Atlantic coast during the LGM. Sci Rep 14, 2080 (2024).) [LGM is the Last Glacial Maximum, 19,0000 to 29,000 years ago] confirms that there is:
"strong evidence for the establishment of ecological corridors linking Andean, Atlantic and Amazonian regions under the relatively cool and moist climates of the LGM, which favored the migration of various plant and animal groups […] The significant sea level fall of ca. 120 m exposed the South American Continental Shelf, which could have created an important migration corridor for different southern Andean plant species to migrate northwards and colonize areas of the Brazilian Atlantic coast. Our data suggests that this vast coastal corridor was possibly covered by temperate-like forest with prevalent Andean floristic affinities in the south and a more Atlantic floristic composition in the north."
The authors note that the Southern Atlantic Continental Shelf Connectivity (SACS) had forests that included Araucaria and Drimys, which are still found in the southern Andean woods. They add that this continental shelf exposed an area of 1.94 million km2 (750,000 sq.mi.) "equivalent in size to the combined areas of France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom."
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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