Creature in Lake Aluminé

Lake Aluminé is located in the central part of Neuquén in northern Patagonia, on the Andes, it is the last of the vast glacial lakes, of the land of the Araucaria monkey puzzle trees north of Lanin National Park.

Lake Aluminé, and araucaria trees. Source

It has a surface area of 57 km² (22 sq.mi.) and a depth of 70 m (230 ft). It is linked to Lake Moquehue and is next to the Chilean border. It drains into the Aluminé River and its water reaches the Atlantic Ocean through the Limay and Negro rivers.

Lakes in central Neuquén, Aluminé is at the top of the map. Copyright © 2025 by Austin Whittall

A Culebrón

In September 2019, some members of the Puel community (a group of Mapuche people) living in Villa Pehuenia, on the north side of the lake spotted something moving in the lake. They said it was like a water snake and it was seen swimming in golfo Azul (Blue Gulf) in the lake. It was filmed (video below, see it online), at around 7:30 pm on a calm lake.

Liliana Puel, a member of the community said that "there was a culebrón, there was one, but I think there were more" she added that "70 years ago in La Angostura (The Narrows) there was a ford where the horses were crossed, but they were not allowed to pass after sunset. Apparently, at dusk the culebrón was about. In those days there was no bridge, and they said that if the culebrón wrapped itself around the horse's leg, the rider would fall off."

 

As mentioned in my book, this lake is home to a strange fox-snake hybrid the nguruvilu. An article published in 1912, stated the following: "Doctor Lehman Nitsche obtained from Chief Nahuelpí a complete version regarding a certain nürüfilu, a monster in Lake Aluminé in Neuquén. There is no doubt that the nürüfilu is no other than Yemisch itself, and has, like him, a prehensile tail."

Anthropologist Paul Adolf Robert Lehman-Nitsche (correct name) interviewed the Mapuche chief in 1902, and it was then that the chief told him about the Mapuche myth of the snake-fox or “Nguruvilú.” The mythical Nguruvilú (also known as Nirribilo, Ghyryvilu, nürüfilu, etc.) derives its name from the Mapudungun words ngürü = “fox” and filu = “snake,” hence “fox- snake,” making it another Mapuche fox hybrid!

It was described in 1810 by Jesuit priest and naturalist, Juan Ignacio Molina, as a reptilian “Dragon”:

In certain Chilean lakes, an enormous fish or dragon can be found, which they name Ghyryvilu, that is, Vulpangue or fox-snake, which, they say, is man-eating, and due to this, they abstain from bathing in those lakes. They disagree on its appearance: some make it out to be long, like a serpent with a fox head.

A Culebrón is another type of creature, a large snake, thick and stubby, described as follows: "A big and snub-tailed snake, that is, with a truncated tail. On its back, it has a mane that measures up to two spans in length and that is extended on both sides, which it uses as wings to fly. The Culebrón’s size is variable; some specimens have been seen with a length of eight spans (1.60 m) [5 ft. 2 in.]"

And the Aluminé River, according to Clemente Onelli in 1922 had a huge beast. This river drains Lake Aluminé and receives the inflow of other Andean lakes (like the Pulmari, Ñorquinco, Rucachoroi, Quillén, and Tromen). It flows into the Limay River, which drains the Nahuel Huapi.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Ape men and Water Tigers in the 1620s

 
SSpanish explorers and the priests who accompanied them on their journeys to America, reported strange events and, more interesting to us cryptozoologists, weird creatures in their accounts.

One of these accounts was written by a Spaniard , father Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa:
Compendio y descripción de las Indias occidentales in 1628-1629. It is quite recent as nearly one hundred and forty years had passed since Columbus set foot on Santo Domingo Island. Nevertheless it has two interesting tidbits which I copy below (translation is mine). You can click on the links to go to the original Spanish language texts.

Savage men in Venezuela
This text is from page 92 (item 278) of Vázquez de Espinosa's book. Click to see original version.

Eight leagues [40 km or 25 miles] from this town of Tucuyo, behind the Carora at the mountain of Campuzano, there are some animals called Savages, rare in the world, they have the proportions and disposition of men in all things except that they are covered with hair a span in length, between brown and silver, they do not speak.

The map below shows the location of this town of Tucuyo, in the State of Lara, Venezuela. It was founded in 1545 by Juan de Carvajal.

Map showing location of El Tocuyo.


Enlarge map

Notice that it is quite close to the area where the Loys ape was found (accross the Maracaibo, towards Colombia).

It is quite surprising that the author says they are animals but does not call them monkeys. The fact that he uses the Spanish word "Salvajes", meaning wild, savage, to refer to them, is also interesting, since it was used to describe uncivilized native people. The being is definitively ape like (the hair as a long as a span -distance from tip of thumb to tip of little finger with hand stretched wide open- is very monkeyish). Nevertheless he describes them as human in all other aspects (except the lack of speech).

They are very likely some variety of South American monkey, but, (samall and doubtful but) they may also represent some unknown homind, same as those described in Guyana by Raleigh around this same period of time.

The "water tiger"

The next description is not actually an ape, it is an aquatic creature that captures humans that are crossing rivers using its long tail. The animal is described as tiger-like. Though he reported it in Chiapas, southern Mexico, right beside Yucatan, he also says that they have been seen in Perú.


This animal is very similar to the Patagonian "Water Tiger", and the fact that the myth is so widespread may indicate that the creature actually existed all over Sothern and Central America.

Its hunting method is identical to the one used by the "fox-snake" of Patagonia: wrapping its tail around its victims' legs.

Below is the translation (here is the original text from page 193, item 584 of his book)

There are [on the shores of the Chiapa River] some animals shaped like big monkeys, painted like tigers; they have a very big tail and usually go about under the water, and they wrap and jam the legs of the Indians that pass by, and drown them, though, as they already know that these crafty animals will jam their legs with their tail, they cut it off with their knives and avoid this danger. These demonic monkeys do not eat meat, instead they are inclined to do evil, and have not been seen in other places, though they say that they are, inland, in the mountains of Pirú [Peru].

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall © 

Guruvilu or Gurufilu the "Fox-Snake" water creature - Full Dossier

 

Today’s post is about the Guruvilu or Gurufilu (as I choose to write the name, the fox-snake, from the meaning of the Mapuche words that make up its name: “guru” = fox and “filu” = snake.

This is a distinctive creature, found in Northern Patagonia and also in Chile south of Valparaiso. I have not found any references regarding the Tehuelche people, but maybe the "water tiger" and the "iemisch" myths may be their way of describing the same creature.

The first written accounts on the fox-snake until 1880.

It was the Chilean Jesuit priest Felipe Gómez de Vidaurre who first wrote about this animal. In his book, published in 1789 (Historia geográfica, natural y civil del Reino de Chile), as quoted by Vicuña Cifuentes, he noted the following:

GURUVILU. Fox-snake, monstrous animal of some lakes in the kingdom [Chile in the colonial period was the kingdom or Reino de Chile]. The Araucanian [Mapuche] say that it swallows men. They do not agree upon its shape. Some make it long like a serpent with the head of a vixen; others nearly circular like an extended cow hide. I doubt that such an animal exists. [1][4]

Evidently Vidaurre had different sources who were talking about different animals. One of them seems to be the “Cuero” (cow hide) while the other is the Guruvilu (the slender fox headed being).

The creature was also reported by Luis de la Cruz during his 1806 trip across northern Patagonia from Antuco to Buenos Aires in Argentina. He wrote that his native guides had seen, in a lake, in northern Patagonia, “animals like cats that kill horses that are called nirribilos”.[10]

The next book to mention it was that of the Jesuit priest and naturalist, Juan Ignacio Molina (1810), he calls it a reptilian “Dragon”:

in certain Chilean lakes, an enormous fish or dragon can be found, that they name Ghyryvilu, that is, Vulpangue or fox-snake, which, they say is man-eating, and due to this they abstain from bathing in those lakes. They disagree in its appearance: some make it out to be long like a serpent with a fox head. [9]

The creature was also reported by Federico Barberá, a military commander in the Argentine war against the Puelche natives in the Pampas and close to the northern border of Patagonia. In the 1860s and 1870s, he had close contact with these “Araucanized” Tehuelche people, the Puelche. They had adopted the Mapuche language and maybe some of their myths. He wrote that their word Yhuayfilú described a “Dragon (or fabulous monster)”.[14] The filu part of the word is the Mapuche word for snake. I have not been able to find what Yhuay means.

The early 1900s reports.

A group of social scientists compiled Mapuche folklore in the early years of the XX^th century. Below I transcribe their notes:

Vicuña Cifuentes.

Julio Vicuña Cifuentes wrote about the Guruvilu in two different books.
He writes the name Guirivilo or Nirivilo (though at one time he preferred Guirivilu or Nirivilu). He says it is the combination of the Mapuche words gúrú (mid sized vixen) and vilu (non venomous snake).[1]

He quotes Vicuña Mackenna, who in his 1877 book, De Valparaíso a Santiago (pp. 76), mentions a marshy lagoon at Viña del Mar (close to Santiago de Chile, well to the north of Patagonia) where “cueros […] swallow those unaware by wrapping them up in a sheet […] which the Chilean Indians call curuvilu” [1][4]

Though it is not quoted by Vicuña Cifuentes, Mackenna adds that: “curuvilu, horrible black snake that had the head of a fox and that inhabited the sea and freshwater ponds”

Mackenna, like Vidaurre blends Cuero and fox-snake into one creature. But they are two distinct animals.

Black snake or fox snake?

Note that is Mapuche for black, thus curuvilu, as spelled by Mackenna, would be a black snake. This also neatly fits his description : “horrible black snake”.

It could also be a spelling mistake (a “C” instead of a “G” which transformed “Guru” into “Curu”).

For German Folklorist Bertha Kossler-Ilg, who lived most of her life in Patagonia, the Kuru-Filu, as she called it, was “a dark water animal” that is why the Mapuche word “kuru” = black was part of its name. [13]

In either case, the curuvilu despite having a different name, must be a fox-snake.

Vicuña Cifuentes also gives some local references [1][4]:

- At Coinco (34°16’S, 70°57’W):

it is a “water fox” that has a very long tail. They say that it is irritable and fierce and that sooner or later it avenges those that bother it throwing stones at it

- At Coihueco in Chillán (36°37’ S, 71°50’ W):

it is a water animal whose body is like that of a dog with a very long tail. It lives in reivers, and when it comes out of the water, which it seldom does, it shivers like if it was dying of cold

Tomás Guevara.


Folklorist Tomás Guevara’s describes the creature as follows (below is a reproduction of the text and an image of the beast) [3]:

Ngúrúvilu (fox snake), aquatic myth with surprising strength. The Mapuche imagination represents it as having a slim and small body, cat head and extremely long fox tail. It frequents the river fords and pools and with its tail it snares men and animals, dragging them to the bottom and drinks their blood. Due to its abundance it is perhaps the most dangerous denizen of the waters. [3]

Guevara includes an image and a footnote in which he states that Lehmann-Nitsche of the La Plata Museum (Argentina) believes that this creature is actually an otter Lutra felina and that this originated the Araucanian myth, also found in Argentina. [3] Below we will look into Lehmann-Nitsche’s theory.

Text and Image of Ngúrúvilu . From [3]

Guevara in his Historia (pp. 239 as cited by Vicu&ntild;a Cifuentes) says that :

The Negúruvilu is another monster similar in its appearance to a cat, armed with a very sharp claw in its tail. It lives in the deep and goes to the fords of the rivers and the shore of the great lakes to kill men and animals. To wrap them it stretches like a snake […] [1]

Guevara tells about a river in which many canoes were overturned at Melivilu, Maquehua (or is it Maquehua? Which is close to Temuco, Chile -38º41’ S, 72º25’ W) where a canoe suffered the same fate, but the man in it, who knew how to swim:

was taken by the tail of an animal, that squeezed him and pricked him. He took out a knife and cut off the animal’s tail. The tail was like two ‘varas’ [*] long: he took it: it was like a saw, it had like claws, what it took, it did not let go; it had the claws facing forward. That is why nobody escaped. Since then no other canoe was overturned.
The animal has the color of a fox, is small and its tail is very long. [6]

[*] “Vara” is an old Spanish unit of length equivalent to roughly 84 cm (33 in.). This tail was about 168 cm long [66 in].

The following map shows the places mentioned in the text and the region (colored yellow) where the Guruvilu has been sighted. Notice that its habitat and the territory of the Mapuche people coincide.

Map showing area where Guruvilu is said to live. © Copyright 2010 by Austin Whittall.

Lehmann-Nitsche.

In 1901, during the period when several expeditions were sent to hunt down the Patagonian mylodon (see my post on the Mylodon Saga), Robert Lehmann-Nitsche wrote an article in which he suggested that the mysterious surviving mylodon was in fact an otter.

He mentions a meeting in which he, a colleague and English explorer Hesketh Prichard (sent to hung the mylodon) met Florentino Ameghino (1854-1911), an eminent anthropologist, zoologist and paleontologist.

told us about correspondence of his brohter Carlos according to which the Patagonian Indians had seen the tracks of an animal with natatory membranes, besides, they called a misterious aquatic animal erefilú.

He believed that erefilú was the nurufilu or fox snake, written incorrectly. He then asked his Mapuche friend, Nahuelpi about this strange being, who told him the following:

The fox-snake lives in the water. It garbs people in the water. It has a tail withi which it grabs people. But if venerated, he does nothing.
There is a lake in the cordillera. There are many fox-snakes in this lake […] He saw the fox-snake […] it was swimming in the water when we saw it. It is small, its chest and belly, white; the tail is long.[7]

The lake was the Aluminé (39°14’ S, 70°55’ W) and the incident happened when Nahuelpi was eight years old (ca. 1880s).

Lehmann-Nitsche then criticizes Siemiradski [8]:

He has heard about the “Nervelu”, as he erroneously writes it; but all of his observations are so inexact and so lacking of reliability, that we do not give importance to the following, in which he transforms the “Nurufilu” in a griffin. He says the following “An evil spirit is called “Nervelu”; the Puelches especially, respect him a lot, even those who have been baptized; it has the shape of a great bird with a beak and claws of steel […]” [7]

Perhaps Siemiradski had the right name and description and that it was really another creature, a “terror bird” myth. It may be coincidence that nervelu and Guru vilu sound alike. Read my post on Big Terror Birds in Patagonia .

Ricardo Latcham

Regarding the Chilean Mapuche, Ricardo Latcham wrote the following: [5]

Nguruvilu –fox snake- is another hybrid, half quadruped, half reptile[…] generally appears as a fox with a snake tail which ends in a claw or nail , long and curved that it uses to catch or hold its prey. Sometimes it figures with the body of a great snake and the head of a fox […]

Latcham believed that it was not a real creature but a symbol of totemic alliances between different Mapuche clans (i.e. the fox and snake clans merged into the fox-snake alliance),

Chiloé

More recently, and for the area of Chiloé Island, Renato Cárdenas Alvarez in his book on the Island’s mythology, wrote about this creature, which he calls Ñirivilo , as follows [2]:

piguchén [*] monster, half fox and half serpent that usually lives in marshy waters, has vast strength and is very harmful. On the south of the Island it is a dog with a fox tail.
Comment: the Mapuche assure that it is a slim and small dog with a fox tail and cat’s head. Sometimes it is mistaken for the cuchivilu and the Cuero. [2]

He adds different variations of the name: guirivilo, guruvilu, nirivilo, ñifivilu, ñivivilu

[*] In this text, picuchén is used as deformed, ill shaped, supernatural.

Discussion

1. Could it be an otter?
In the late 1800s at the natives at Lake Nahuel Huapi, Argentina, told Salesian priest Lino Carbajal about the Guarifiú, he wrote about them in 1899, as follows:

Very large and terrible aquatic animals at Nahüel-Huapí […] of a colossal strength and size with fish fins, dog head and a strong and very long tail. With which it captured the Indians that swam, dragging them to the bottom where it drowned them and hid them between the roots of the plants. [11]

Detail of Carbajal’s description of the Guarifiú. From [11]

This was the animal that the Mapuche feared most and was the most difficult to hunt. Carbjal believed, that it was an otter, but the natives told him that otter were well known and common while Guarifiú was “rare and terrible”.

He managed to have one hunted, and he described the specimen as larger than the Chilean otter but otherwise normal. He concluded that the Indians always exaggerated.

Lehmann-Nitsche, after sifting through the evidence also concluded that the fox – snake is the Lutra felina, known as Chungungo or Chilean sea cat. A sea otter. [7]

Perhaps, not knowing about the Huillín neither of them ascribe the myth to it and chose the Chungungo instead.[7]

Though Carbajal comments have led scientists to believe that the fox-snake is an otter, I am not convinced because, it may be possible that the natives did not send him a Guarifiú, but an otter (easier and safer to hunt); furthermore the Mapuche knew all about otters, which they called Huillín so if they defined an animal with a distinct name (gurufilu, it must have been some other kind of creature.

Going back to Lehmann-Nitsche at Aluminé he believed that the fox-snake myth combined features of both huillín and jaguar [7] but Latcham disagreed; for him the otter did not have any part in the fox-snake myth for it had been incorporated into the Mapuches’ “ñul-ñul” and “Llun-Llun” myths.[12]

2. The real nguruvilu.

In any case, there is a real animal in Chile that goes by the name nguruvilu. and according to Latcham it belongs to the family of the tiny “monito del monte”;[12] how could have a minute and shy marsupial lend its name to the fearsome killer water fox is an unsolved mystery.

3. water tiger and snake fox. Similar creatures.

The “fox-snake” resembles the “water tiger” (see my post on this being) in many ways; both are aquatic carnivores that drag down and kill large animals and men. Perhaps their different names reflect local variations of the same species.

We should not be surprised to find two other animals that are virtually identical to the fox-snake living along Patagonia’s northern border, Maripill and the Colorado River animal.

Bibliography.

[1] Vicuña Cifuentes, J., (1915). Mitos y Supersticiones Recogidos de la tradición oral chilena con referencias comparativas a los de otros paises latinos Impr. Universitaria. pp. 65-66.
[2] Cárdenas Alvarez, R., (1998). El Libro de la Mitologí. P. Arenas: Ed. Atelí. pp. 95
[3] Guevara, T., (1908). Psicolojía del pueblo Araucano. Impr. Cervantes. pp. 322
[4] Vicuña Cifuentes, J., (1910). Mitos y Supersticiones Recogidos de la Tradición oral Impr. Universitaria. pp. 23-24.
[5] Latcham, R., (1924). Op. Cit. pp. 573-575.
[6] Guevara, T., Op.Cit. pp. 412.
[7] Lehmann-Nitsche, R., (1902). La pretendida existencia actual del Grypotherium. Supersticiones Araucanas referentes a la Lutra y al Tigre. Revista Museo la Plata. V. X. pp 271+. Online:



[8] Siemiradski, Josef. Beiträge zur Ethnographie der südamerikanischen Indianer “Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien”, XXVIII Bd., 1898, pp. 127-170, esp. p. 166.
[9] Molina, J. Op. Cit. pp. 233.
[10] De la Cruz, L. Op. Cit. pp. 110.
[11] Delvalle Carbajal, L., (1899). La Patagonia: studi generali. S. Benigno Canavese. Serie 1ª.-4, pp. 214+. Online:



[12] Latcham, R. Op. Cit. pp. 609.
[13] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Op. Cit. pp. 73.
[14] Barberá,F. Op. Cit. pp.59.

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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

Desceliers 1546 map and its monsters

 

Detail of Desceliers 1546 World Map showing Patagonia. From [1]

Detail of Desceliers 1546 World Map showing a dragon(?). From [1]

Detail of Desceliers 1546 World Map showing Griffins(?). From [1]

The incomplete world map drawn in 1546 by Pierre Desceliers (1487-1553), is contemporary to Thevet's Succarath. Its formal name is Faictes a Arques par Pierre Desceliers presbe 1546 and you can see it online Here [1].

The map shows, in Patagonia, some strange animals which we have reproduced above. One of them appears to be a dragon while the other two are a pair of griffins, one of which is feasting on some animal that it has hunted.

Dragons are mentioned in several myths regarding Patagonian creatures, griffins on the other hand are only mentioned in one XVI^th century chronicle.

For instance, the mythical Nguruvilú (also known as Nirribilo, Ghyryvilu) was described in 1810 by Jesuit priest and naturalist, Juan Ignacio Molina as a reptililan “Dragon”:"in certain Chilean lakes, an enormous fish or dragon can be found".[2]

In the late 1800s, Federico Barberá, a military commander in the Argentine war against the Puelche natives, wrote that their word Yhuayfilú described a "Dragon (or fabulous monster)”.[3]

the Mapuche “Cherruv” or “Cherrufe”, which had many different representations and for some tribes it was “sphinx that blends the head of a man to the body of a “Culebrón”. Or, according to Guevara a hydra-like being: “a seven headed monster, a dragon that spews fire […] and lives close to volcanos”.[4]

The “Culebrón” (from the Spanish word for “big snake” or “dragon”), which the natives called “Füta Filu” (big snake) had differing appearances depending on the tribe and region. However most agreed that it was a fat stout snake with a mane of stiff hairs along its back.

Another mythical Mapuche being, "Epunamun” was depicted by Father Ovalle in his "Histórica Relación" as follows: “their Epunamon [sic] appeared to them in the form of a terrible dragon, casting fire out of his mouth, and his tail curled up”.[5]

Click for more information on Culebrón and Epunamun Here.

Outside of Patagonia, in the XV^th century, there were reports of a gigantic “condor-griffin” (the latter is a fantastic creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle). Cieza de León, a Spanish conquistador and chronicler noted that in Perú (1540s) there were “some very big condors that almost look like griffins; some attack lambs and small guanaco in the fields”.[6] Perhaps this creature extended its range into Patagonia.


Bibliography.

[1] National Library of Australia. World maps. Early works to 1800. Facsimiles. Australia. Discovery and exploration. Call Number: MAP RM 567.
[2] Molina, J., (1986). Ensayo sobre la historia Natural de Chile. Santiago: Ediciones Maule pp. 233.
[3] Barbará, F., (2000). Manual de la lengua pampa. B. Aires: Emecé. pp.59.
[4] Guevara, T., (1925). Historia de Chile: Chile prehispano. Santiago: Balcells. Chap. I.
[5] De Ovalle, A., (1646). Histórica Relación del Reyno de Chile…. Roma: Francisco Caballo. pp. 200.
[6] Cieza de León, P. Ballesteros, M. [Ed] (2000). La crónica del Perú (1553). Madrid: Dastin S. L. pp. 367-368.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters