The Ucumar of Metán
In 2022 a rural worker near Metán in Salta said he had seen the Ucumar, a hairy, man-sized ape-like creature of northwest Argentine folklore, and asked for help to hunt it.
2022 CE · -25.50, -64.97 · status: claim
The account
The Ucumar (from Quechua ukumari, 'bear') is said to live in the cloud forests of Salta and Tucumán, to cry 'uhu-uhu' and to carry off women. Folklorist Berta Vidal de Battini recorded Ucumar stories in Salta in the early 1950s, and there are many testimonies from Metán and Rosario de la Frontera, including a sighting by two witnesses near Rosario de la Frontera in 2001. A viral video in 2025 revived the legend.
The sceptical view
No body, bones or clear photographs exist. The name points to the spectacled bear, which once ranged into northwest Argentina, as the likely origin of the stories.