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Thursday, January 28, 2021

The Peluda

by Cole Herrold


Outside of Lake, River, and Sea Monsters, Europe is surprisingly devoid of cryptids. There, of course, are famous encounters like the Beast of Gevaudan, the famous cryptid canine that killed countless women in children in the French countryside, and the Owlman of Mawnan England's answer to the Mothman, yet these creatures, if legends are to be believed is not the only strange creature reported to dwell in the European countryside. Reports of a strange venomous mammalian reptile were reported during the Medieval Times in France. This strange chimeral beast may seem like fiction, but some cryptozoologists have entertained the notion that what was reported in French legend was, in fact, a living creature.

My first encounter with the strange beast known as the Peluda came from the Cartoon Network show Secret Saturdays. A show about cryptozoologists protecting, researching, and hiding the existence of cryptids. It was an ambitious show at the time and extremely fun to watch, and in one particular episode where the hero Zak Saturday and his family raid the villain V.V. Argost's lair full of cryptids, they encounter a shaggy hair covered beast that, when sighting the hero suddenly revealed a reptile head and long quills. I was fascinated by this creature as it didn't seem to match any cryptid I had known. A quick search on the show's wiki website led to the confirmation that the creature was the Peluda.

The Peluda, also known as La Velue, the Hairy Beast, the Shaggy Beast, the Shaggy One, and the Hairy Beast of La Ferte-Bernard's origins can be placed to the banks of the Huisne River in France. This creature supposedly was left behind from Noah’s Ark but somehow managed to survive the Great Flood described in the book of Genesis. The creature either overlooked by Noah or deliberately rejected resulted in the creature bearing a grudge against all of humanity, devoting its whole life's purpose to cause terror and to torment the human race. The creature would eventually be found to plague specifically the village of La Ferte-Bernard, causing destruction to both livestock and crops. The creature was covered in shaggy green hair with long quills and bore the head and tail of a serpent, and was the size of a large ox. It was quadrupedal and had short stubby tortoise-like reptilian legs. The quills on the creature could be shot out of the skin like arrows and were filled with an extremely deadly poison. As if these features weren't bizarre enough, the creature allegedly was unkillable, with one exception the beast's tail; it could also both breathe fire and spit either poison or water from its mouth.

The creature would frequently attack La Ferte-Bernard not being stopped by moats or walls and would proceed to attack livestock and drag them into the river. When pursued, the creature, when returning to its watery lair, would release enough water to flood the fields around the river, destroying any crops that were planted there. This creature would travel down the river and live under an ivy-covered bridge. The creature's diet of sheep, cattle, and horses, however, would not be long-lived, and soon other prey was chosen by the strange creature. The creature soon began attacking women and children, attacking the mand dragging their remains back to the river where it would feed. It was extremely fond of what would be called L' agnelles or agnelles, which means "she-lambs," which were the most beautiful and pure maidens in town. It would take considerable delight in consuming them, but in doing so, it led to the creature's end. One of these "she lambs" was consumed in front of her would-be fiancée, and as the creature lumbered back to its watery lair, the man was filled with only one thought revenge. The man proceeded on talking to an old Wiseman or wisewoman who conveyed to him the only way to kill the Peluda. In doing so, the man prepared. He put on an armored suit and grabbed a large sword, and like many before him, went to slay a dragon.

The man followed the trail of corpses and the path of the river and eventually made his way to the Peluda's bridge. It hissed and roared as the man approached. It clamored out from under its bridge and proceeded to move towards the man. The creature released some of its poisonous quills, but the man's armor had stopped the venomous projectiles from getting into his skin. The creature continued the assault. As the man raised his sword, he moved towards the end of the creature's sword raised and, upon seeing the beast's writhing tail swung his mighty sword down. The creature screamed in agony and slumped into the water, for the creature had died from the single blow. The villagers cheered about this creature's demise and proceeded to celebrate the beast's death. They took the body, embalmed it, and have a huge feast with drums, fifes, and dancing for their salvation had come.

The tale of the Peluda is a bizarre one that is similar to a variety of dragon legends that have occurred over the centuries. Yet unlike typical dragons, its appearance is something totally different. Its form is the dragon equivalent of the platypus, this strange chimeral beast with hair and quills like a mammal, a reptile-like tail, head, and feet, the venomous quills are similar interestingly enough to both the porcupine in appearance, and the platypus in function, its other abilities like fire breathing something that in the legend it never utilizes but is always mentioned in connection with the peluda is typical dragon behavior even though biologically we have no explanation for how and why this might occur. These features are the interesting part of the creature, for it's something so bizarre that if you remove the fire, breathing could be something that could exist if the story is about real encounters with an unknown creature.

With this case, there is a lot of assumption that this could be a real creature, but that is one of the things about cryptozoology is that many of the older cases of creatures are based just on that assumption. The interesting thing about the peluda is just how unique it is and unimpressive compared to other dragons. Sure, it’s supped up to be fire breathing and so on, but those features outside of the poisonous quills are never featured in the legend, specifically outside a brief mention. It could be possible that if this were a real animal, those features could have been added on to fit with the larger world of dragon legends. The first appearance of the peluda in legend comes from the 15th century, but the legend was later embellished in the 19th century, so it's very possible many of the more remarkable features were, in fact, added on those four hundred years or so later, making an account of an aggressive animal into a fictional beast.

Many dragon legends have since been looked into for potentially real encounters with unknown creatures like, for example, the Lambton Worm or the Tarasque. These creatures are lumped into dragon lore, but they are not the flying fire-breathers or undulating fliers of Asia. They appear as quadrupedal or serpent-like and are more plausible than the flying variety. These "neo-dragons," which include the Peluda, could, in fact, be one-offs of evolution that are extinct nowadays either because of man hunting them or simply not being able to survive in their given environments. While a lot of this is conjecture, it is not outside the realm of possibility, for there have been stranger animals that have existed on our planet at one point or another and creatures that were both reptilian and feathered were commonplace it could be possible that the Peluda was descended from one of those lines but because of competition with humans led to its current extinction.

As stated before, all this is conjecture, but a note that adds a hint of authenticity to the tale is the embalmed remains. Many cryptozoological cases discuss a variety of encounters with creatures that were later either eaten or embalmed. The most famous preserved carcass case was the Beast of Gevaudan, but due to the smell, the body was later buried. Could it be that the Peluda featured a similar fate once a smell began? Possibly there are tons of tales of individuals losing pieces of sea monsters because of the smell, which unfortunately left them evidence less when telling their tale. The Peluda very well could have been such a case.

While the possibility that the Peluda could have been a real animal is slim, it is not outside the realm of possibility. Certainly, this creature is now extinct, so further study will prove to be impossible, leaving this case to be a good thought exercise at least. There are so many mysteries from the past as well as the present, and these cases too need to be reinvestigated or rediscussed, for this is how we can potentially come to a final conclusion to the truth of our and the animal kingdom's history. Yet, with this case, it is just as murky as the Huisne River.

*An endnote on the name Peluda- The peluda's name is a direct Spanish translation of the hairy one or shaggy one from the French name La Velue or just Velue. It is important to note that La Velue is the proper name for the beast outside of Spanish literature and arguably should be the one used. However, due to pop culture and the works of Jorge Luis Borges, the name Peluda has become the most common name of the creature hence why the article has been centered around this particular alias.

Quick Facts:

Species/ Potential Species: Reptile, Mammal
Location: Huisne River, La Ferte-Bernard, France
Sighted: 15th Century

Works Cited:

Borges, Jorge Luis The Book of Imaginary Beings. Penguin. 2005.
Shuker, Dr. Karl. Dragons: A Natural History. Simon and Schuster. 1995.
“Peluda” All About Dragons. https://allaboutdragons.com/dragons/Peluda. Accessed January 26, 2021
“Peluda” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. January 14, 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peluda. Accessed January 26, 2021
“Velue”. A Book Of Creatures. January 18, 2019 https://abookofcreatures.com/2019/01/18/velue/. Accessed January 26, 2021.

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