Pinchaque
A high-altitude cryptid resembling a vampiric tapir.
- Region
- Andean páramo of Colombia and Ecuador
- Documented sightings
- 2 on map →
Overview
The Pinchaque is a cryptid reported from the high-altitude páramo grasslands of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes. The name was originally applied by 19th-century naturalists to what was assumed to be a separate species of vampire-like tapir; modern indigenous accounts describe a creature distinct from the known mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque).
Identification
Reported at the size of a large mountain tapir but with distinctive long curved fangs or tusks, dark woolly fur, and a habit of preying on livestock — particularly cattle — by attaching to the throat and draining blood. Witnesses note bell-like vocalizations and tracks consistent with a large odd-toed ungulate.
Lore & Origin
Spanish-Colombian explorer José Celestino Mutis recorded indigenous accounts of the Pinchaque during his Royal Botanical Expedition of 1783–1816. The known mountain tapir was named "Tapirus pinchaque" by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1829, but indigenous communities continue to distinguish between that species and the cryptid. The Pinchaque tradition remains active in the Páramo de Sumapaz and the Llanganates region of Ecuador.