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

"Maripill" and the Llaima volcano monster

 

Maripill; its name derives from the Mapuche words “mari”= ten and “pill”= short form of “pillán” which,[1] was a spirit that the Mapuche believed lived in the Andean volcanoes but was also found in lakes and streams.

Maripill lives in the northern Patagonian lakes and is a very large and ugly animal; whose back is jagged like a saw, and it uses it to tear the cattle apart by running under their bellies very quickly. It uses its clawed hands to grab the children who venture close to the water.

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]”.[2] This interesting bit of information points towards a relict animal from more humid (and perhaps warmer) climes.

According to others, it has a dragon-like appearance: tall like a horridly shaped horse, with a long neck topped by a lizard head; its mouth is long and full of strong fangs, its arms long and clawed.[3]

Maripill is so strikingly similar to a mythical Mapuche beast, the Nguruvilú (we will post later about Nguruvilú)that one may be tempted to think it is the same creature, yet it bears a different name so it may be some other being.

Perhaps the “volcanic” pillán may offer an explanation.

Llaima volcano monster

Llaima volcano (38°41 S, 71°43’ W) in northern Chilean Patagonia is one of South America’s three most active volcanoes and has erupted nearly fifty times since 1640.

This volcano was not only home to a deformed dwarf, Quetrunamun (we have posted on it Here), another monster was seen here during the 1640 eruption.

According to historian Ovalle , during that eruption, there was an apparition by the volcano of a “fierce beast full of convoluted antlers on
its head, giving horrifying groans and dreadful sounds”;[4] below is the image published in his book:

Llaima volcano monster.
From: [4]; “Indi prodigijs Montis igniuomi, Amnis arborem, mostrum”.

Ovalle represented the beast as a horned being that lacked arms, had bird (dinosaur?) like hind legs and a prehensile tail; it even seemed covered with scales or feathers.

The horned head is jagged like a saw, and its volcano habitat may mean that this monster was a Maripill.

There were other very similar large reptilian creatures in Patagonia (the hairy snake, Culebrón and the dragon-like Epunamún), we really do not know what they could have been.

See our posts on Culebrón and Epunamun.

The Llaima volcano creature closely resembles a Harpy (except that it lacks wings - or are they folded in the engraving?). There were reports of harpies in Chile and Perú in the XVIII^th century. See my post on the Chilean Harpy.

Bibliography.

[1] Latcham, R., (1924). Op. Cit. pp. 352.
[2] Stieben, E., (1951). Hualicho Mapu (Leyendas, cuentos y relatos de la Pampa misteriosa). B. Aires: Albatros. pp. 91+
[3] Colombres, A., (2001). Op. Cit. pp. 160.
[4] de Ovalle, A. Op. Cit. pp. 303+



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters