Ocupal, La Pampa, another cryptid

 
Ocupal, is what geographer Alberto Vuletín calls a "paleo-toponym" (ancient place name). In his book on La Pampa province toponyms he mentions it as one of the names given by the natives of that region (Araucanized Tehuelches) to the Salado River.

It is interesting because its name refers to a strange animal.

The River

As there are many Salado Rivers in Argentina, I will specify which one by means of the following map showing the Colorado (in orange) and Desaguadero - Salado - Curacó(in yellow) river drainage basins: [2]

Basins of the Colorado and Desaguadero - Salado - Curacó rivers.
Adapted by Austin Whittall from [2]

The river, which changes its name along its course is nearly 1,500 km long (932 mi.), and has its northernmost sources in the province of La Rioja high in the Andes at 5,500 m altitude (18,000 ft.). It flows in a North-South direction parallel to the Andean Cordillera and receives the flow of many rivers which also have their sources in the Andean glaciers such as the Jáchal, Vinchinas, Atuel, Tunuyán and Diamante. Many of these rivers are now used to irrigate the vineyards at the foot of the Andes in the Cuyo region provinces of La Rioja,Mendoza and San Juan.

This has led to a dramatic drop in the flow of the Desaguadero River. Its wetlands (such as Guanacache and Bañados del Atuel have dried up due to this cause). It has also led to friction between the province of La Pampa (downstream) and the provinces of Cuyo region (upstream) about water usage rights.

So, until the early 1900s, the river carried plenty of water and the western region of La Pampa was more humid than it is nowadays.

It is known as Desaguadero along the border between the provinces of San Luis and Mendoza, but after receiving the inflow from the Atuel River in the province of La Pampa (36°16'S) it is known as Salado ("Salty" due to its brackish water) or by the Mapuche language words Chadileuvú or Chadileo which mean the same thing (salty river).

It drains into the salt water lakes of Urre Lauquen and La Salada, and then, changes its name to Curacó (stone water) and continues southward until it flows into the Colorado River at (38°50'S, 64°58′W).

Its basin covers a surface area of 260,000 km² (one hundred thousand sq. mi.).

The Animal

According to Vuletín [1]:

Its meaning [Ocupal] has been sought but nobody has found anything concrete about it, though it may seem to refer in a vague manner to some animal that existed in the area and that nowadays has disappeared [1]

He wonders if it could be the Aguará or maned wolf, or, "the name of the animal of a "horrid howl", mentioned by the native Mariqueo"[1] in the early 1800s.

He states that it is also spelt as: Osocopal, Osopal and locates the place in the Limay Mahuida Department, Lot 19, Fraction A, Section XIX. Which is roughly located at 37°07'S, 67°03'W. At the southern tip of Vutaló Creek and to the east of El Potrol Stream, west of the Chadileuvú River and north of the Limay Mahuida hills.

Regarding Potrol, Luis de la Cruz, who trekked through the area from Antuco Chile to Buenos Aires Argentina in 1806 (when it was still a wild country in the hands of the natives), said that at a lake there lived the ñirrivilu snake-fox. His guide "the Indian Pulemanque told him that the Salado used to be known as Ocupal and that it ran in the Potrol's bed" [1].

Oop, ocupal, the same beast

The monster of a "horrid howl" is mentioned by de La Cruz, as an "Oop" and it was named after its high-pitched yell (follow the link above Aguar&aacutr; for more details on Oop).

What is the relationshp between Oop and the faintly similar word "Ocupal". A lot! Actually the suffix "al" at the end of Ocupal turns what precedes it into a collective noun, thus "Ocupal" is the collective of "Ocupa", which is very similar to "Oop".

Ocupal would mean "pack of Oop" or "many Oop".

The other ways of spelling it, Osocopal, Osopal seem to imply that the beast was known as Osocop or Osop, both of which are similar to "Oop".

I want to point out that the word "oso" in Spanish means bear, but there are no bears in this part of South America (at least nowadays; see my post on Bears in Patagonia).

Sources.

[1] Alberto Vuletín, (1972). La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes. B. Aires, Eudeba. pp. 148 and 106.
[2] Image by Knusser; Own work using Digital Chart of the World and GTOPO data. It is licensed under a Generic Creative Commons Attribute / Share-alike 3.0

I adapted the image by adding some place names. It is licensed under the same terms.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Chueiquehuecu (La Pampa) monster

 

Yesterday I mentioned a book by Alberto Vuletín on the name places of La Pampa province, Argentina, just north of the Patagonian border (marked by the Colorado River). Besides hairy snakes, the book also mentions another strange creature, the Chueiquehuecú.

Chueiquehuecú

There is a place close in the Capital Department of the province of La Pampa, known as Monte Chué, which is the abbreviated form for the Copse of the Chueiquehuecú.

This being is described as a "Fabulous animal" also known as "Chué" or "Chuel", that " lives permanently in the water or in very humid places. They believe that it harms those that swim and that sometimes it can be seen roaming the shady forests.[1]

According to historian Rodolfo Casamiquela [2], the name is not a Mapuche word but perhaps of the Northern Tehuleche natives, and its meaning is unknown.

The Mapuche occupied the region after the 1600s, displacing and absorbing the original inhabitants of Tehuelche origin. The Tehuelche in turn occupied the whole of Eastern Patagonia, and part of the Pampas prairies, from Tierra del Fuego (where they were known as Selk'nam) to Buenos Aires (they were named Pampas in that area). The Mapuche, after the Spanish displaced them from their homeland in Chile, crossed the Andes into Argentina and imposed their culture and language on the Tehuelche groups and also on other natives of Neuquén province of Huarpid origin (the Pehuenches, Pichunches and Manzaneros).

If the word is of Tehuelche origin, is is indeed ancient and predates any possible myths introduced by the Mapuche.

Chel or Chuel

On the other hand, another publication [5], referring to a Patagonian town named Choele Choel, set on the Negro River (which got its name from a large fertile island in the river), says that the words Choele and Choel may not be Mapuche; but if they were, the name is surely spelt incorrectly. It goes on to state that the closest similar word for "Choel" is: "Chel" a Mapuche word meaning "frightening or terrifying being".

You can read about the evil connotations given to the word "Chel" in my post on the Tachwull dwarves, related to evil spirits known as "chelule" or "sechu".

A word which, as we can see is a mystery in itself: is it Tehuelche or Mapuche?
Either way, its connotation is evil and inspires fear.

The Huallipen "sheep-calf"

However, Vuletín in another book [3] says that the Chueiqhehuecu is no other than the Mapuche myhtical beast, the "huallepéñ", which is definitively a Mapuche beast (see my post on Huallipen, the "sheep - calf"), which is an agile and dangerous aquatic beast that attacks people and animals fiercely.

So, here we have a creature that is common to two native groups and has a distinctive name in each culture: Chueiquehuecu (Tehuelche) and Huallipen (Mapuche).

Huecú

But you may have noticed that the name of the monster ends with the word "huecu", this, according to Chilean folklorist Vicuñ Cifuentes, is a "terrible", "ugly", "aquatic [being] that lives in shallow and solitary lakes", an "amphibian" that drags its victims under water with horse and all.[4] It is found in Chile.

Its horse dragging abilities are similar to those of the Gurufilu fox-snake.

The animal seems to have quite a wide range, from Chile to Northern Patagonia. What it is though, will remain a mystery.

Sources.

[1] Alberto Vuletín, (1972). La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes. B. Aires, Eudeba. pp. 142.
[2] Rodolfo Casamiquela, (1968). Geonimia: obra mapa de La Pampa., Biblioteca Pampeana, pp. 22.
[3] Alberto Vuletín (1982), Huecuvumapu. Gardenia, pp. 45.
[4] Vicuña Cifuentes, (1947), Mitos y Supersticiones, Nascimiento. pp. 53+.
[5] Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, Vol. 34. 1963, pp.798.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Hairy snake in La Pampa

 

Detail of the map by Alvaro Barros of 1872. From [1] pp 14.

A second hand book I bought recently La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes by Alberto Vuletín (1972) [1], has an interesting reference regarding hairy snakes.

The book's cover.

The book explains the origin of the name places in the Province of La Pampa and focuses on those of native origin. Though La Pampa is officially part of the Patagonia region, (having joined the Patagonian Provinces) the historical northern boundary of that region has been set along the Colorado River, which also marks La Pampa's southern frontier. So, if I were a purist, I would not mention this as a Patagonian creature, but as the natives that peopled the area also lived in Patagonia, I will included in the blog.

Its author includes a map by Alvaro Barros, drawn in 1872, a few years before the Argentine government undertook a military campaign (1878-1884) to occupy the region and snatch it from the native's hands. Interestingly, it mentions a Calchochá or "Snake with hairs" ("Víbora con pelo" in the Spanish original), close to the border between the provinces of La Pampa and Buenos Aires.

It is just north of a place named "Agua fria dulce" (cold freshwater) which, in the native language was known as "Atreucó" (from Athé = cold, có = water or uúvco = spring) which is set close to the provincial highway number 18 (37°07'S, 63°48'W).

There are several lakes in that region, but none of them bear nowadays the name of "hairy snake".

In a post nearly one year ago, on the "Patagonian" Hairy Snake, I included a comment by a military commander along the Pampa frontier Federico Barbará, who mentioned a lake named precisely "hairy snake", perhaps it was the same lake mentioned above.

The book has some other interesting things, I will mention them in my next post (the Chueiquehuecu monster).

By the way, Alvaro Barros was the first Governor of Patagonia Territory (1878-1882), so it may be correct to include the Pampean hairy snake as part of Patagonia's mythical fauna.

Sources.
[1] Alberto Vuletín, (1972). La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes. B. Aires, Eudeba.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Colorado River - "water animal"

 

This creature lacks a specific name and is only known as the "water animal".

Its home is the Colorado River (which is the northern boundary of Patagonia). This river which is born right on the Chilean-Argentine frontier between the provinces of Neuquén and Mendoza, flows across the steppe in an easterly direction for 900 km (560 mi.) until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It receives the inflow of only one river (the Curacó) along the steppe.[1]

The animal has been reported at Casa de Piedra (38°12’S, 67°12’W) by Edgar Morisol who in the 1960s heard it from the locals while working on the team that was prospecting the site for the construction of a reservoir.[1]

A local by the name of Crispín Giles told him that the “water animal” would come into the river from its banks, “scaring the men with its yells that were heard from very far away and frightening the horses when they heard it”. This animal is described as follows:

A mysterious animal lives in the river and is only seen at night. Big, long as a lampalagua, strong and very evil. A great swimmer it has fingers like membranes. Its hair is dark and shines like silk. It lives in caves on the river bed. It attacks the animals when they come down to the water […] some say that on the nights with moon it can be seen frolicking in the river. Several times its tracks have been seen on the beaches. It also attacks the men who cross the river, but this happens ver seldomly […] it drags the animals to the bottom to drown them and it kills them.[1]

It seems to be similar to the Maripill and to the nguruvilu (which I have only mentioned superficially - I will post on it in detail later).

All of these creatures have also been seen in the province of La Pampa (which does not belong to Patagonia, as it is north of the Colorado River -which is the province's southern border). It is also similar to the Water Tiger. Perhaps they are all the same animal.

An interesting piece of information is that the Colorado River at the end of the last Ice Age flowed in a southwest-northeast direction towards the Paraná River across the Pampas of Buenos Aires province.

This could have provided an "aquatic route" into Patagonia for giant otters found in the Paraná River basin. A route that now is non-existent because a wide stretch of arid land lacking freshwater separates the humid Pampas from the arid Patagonian steppe (the Arid Gap that I wrote about in a previous post Here).

Furthermore, in my post on Maripill I wrote:

Apparently at one time it “lived in rivers [that later dried up][…] big rivers that long ago came down from the mountains on the west [the Andes]”.This interesting bit of information points towards a relict animal from more humid (and perhaps warmer) climes.

These rivers may have fed the Colorado River with abundant water during deglaciation or during a wetter period, allowing outflow towards the Paraná River basin. The Chadileuvú or Salado;, Curacó, Diamante, Atuel, Mendoza, San Juan and Tunuyán rivers all fed the Colorado basin but nowadays their flow is much reduced because their water is used to irrigate farmland upstream in Mendoza and San Juan provinces.

The following maps show this "aquatic route"[2][3]:

(Top) The River Plate and Paraná rivers are shown in blue on the upper right side of the map (by Buenos Aires city) and the Colorado River is shown in red on the bottom.
(Bottom) Detail showing the outflow towards the Paraná River basin (blue arrows) and a previous outflow towards Bahia Blanca (green arrows).

Bibliography.

[1] Morisoli, E., (1981). La presencia del Animal de Agua en la zona de Casa de Piedra. La Arena. Suplemento "Caldenia" 13.02.1981. Santa Rosa, Argentina. Online Here.
[2] Jensen, R.A.; Marazzi, M.L.; Savioli, J.C.; Brea, J.D.; Tavecchio, H., (2000). Diagnóstico de inundación en la región noreste de la provincia de La Pampa, Argentina. Santa Rosa: Gobierno de la Provincia de La Pampa.
[3] Malagnino, E.C ., (1988). Evolución del sistema fluvial de la Provincia de Buenos Aires desde el Pleistoceno hasta la actualidad. Segundas Jornadas Geológicas Bonaerenses. Bahía Blanca, 1988. Actas, 201-211.




Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters