Cuero

Cuero (cuero, trelque or Spanish hide) is a lake monster from Argentina and Chile (including Lakes Lacar and Nahuel Huapi). Other names: El bien peinado, cuerito, cuero unudo, hide, huecu, lafquén trilque, manta, trelque, trelquehuecufe, trelquehuecuve.

It is described as a flattened animal resembling a piece of tanned cowhide, but surrounded by claws, and is characterized as a cephalopod and a stingray.

It is described exclusively by Mapuche and Araucanized Tehuelche in Araucania and northern Patagonia . It is not found in the folklore of southern Patagonia. Although it is mentioned in the "History of Geographical History" by Felipe Gomez de Vidaurre (1789), it was first described in print by Juan Ignacio Molina, who believed that it was a giant stingray, in his "Essay on the Natural History of Chile" (1810). Molina described "an almost round [animal], similar to an elongated bullskin. If that were the case, it would be a kind of Manta Ray of a monstrous race."

Both in size and shape, cuero is compared to a piece of tanned cow or goat skin, and this similarity gave it Spanish and Mapuche names. It is said that the edges of his body are surrounded by sharp claws, nails or hooks. Some later sources replace these claws with many small eyes and add four large eyes to the dorsal surface of the animal. Thomas Guevara and Francisco H. Kawada described him as an octopus.

It lives in deep water at the bottom of lakes and bays, but sometimes it is called an amphibian that comes ashore to bask in the sun, [4] and in some sources it is called partially marine.

Cuero is considered an aggressive and dangerous man: he allegedly killed many people and is known to drag children to the bottom of lakes. Presumably, it grabs people and animals who are swimming or crossing the water and kills them "by means of irresistible compression," folding over itself to wrap its claws around the prey to squeeze it, and then drags it to the bottom. to be devoured. It is claimed that he is very strong, powerful enough to drag a horse into the water. However, it can be hunted with nooses or by throwing pieces of cactus into the water, with which it is pierced.

Some folklore stories say that he lives in caves and beheads his victims. Cueros are said to live in Lakes Nahuel Huapi, Lacar (where the tiny but aggressive "cuertio" supposedly exists), Rosario, Carrilaufken, Yelcho, Quillen, Lolog, Paymun, Futalaufken and Ranko (that is, "infamous for his observations of cuero").

The following story can be considered the first mention. In 1965, an old man named Ambrosio Meilivio told the story of Cuero's attack, which he had heard about in his youth. According to Meilivio, a man named Ramil was killed by Cuero on the shores of Lake Carrilaufken.

"[...] his horse rolled and threw him along the shore of the lake [... Ramil fell onto something like a hide lying at the water's edge, which quickly rolled him up and took him with a rolling motion into the lake."

Cuero is described as a freshwater octopus. [1] Ricardo Latsham believed that it originated from a large marine cephalopod such as Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), referring to the squid's large size, its suckers and its "skin shell called manto, joined on the dorsal side and loose on the back side." 

Austin Whittall notes that cuero closely resembles the freshwater stingray that exists in the river systems of northern South America, up to the Paraná basin: the largest South American species, the short-tailed river stingray (Potamotrygon brachyura), is found in the Rio de la Plata River basin in northern Argentina.

Mark A. Hall suggested that cuero, along with another Patagonian lake monster and some freshwater octopuses, could have been developed eurypterids, or sea scorpions, which had six pairs of limbs around the thorax.

Shuker suggests that Cuero's supposed marine version may be explained by a deep-sea jellyfish, known or unknown, similar to the one seen in the South Pacific in 1953. He claims that the numerous eyes surrounding his body may be the eyespots or eyes possessed by many jellyfish, and that the four large eyes may be eye-like gastric pouches like those of the common moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita).