CHILE’S AQUATIC TIGER MONSTER—EL CUERO
EL CUERO TRANSLATES to leather or hide, which witnesses claim describes the creature’s skin.
El Cuero was first documented in Father Juan Ignacio Molina’s 1810 essay on Chile’s natural history. El Cuero is a stingray with a barbless tail. Its fringe is sharp like claws, and its eyes are on stocks like a snail. It can get up to five feet wide and weight around sixty-five pounds.
It attacks by wrapping around its prey, digging its sharp fringe into its victim’s skin, and then its proboscis-like tongue sucks its prey’s blood and/or organs.
El Cuero’s ferociousness gave it the nickname the aquatic tiger and may be the same creature others know as Hueke-Hueke.
El Cuero can be killed by tossing sharp cactus into the water beside it. The creature will w
