The Yacumama
Along the Amazon, people speak of the Yacumama, the mother of the waters: a serpent so large it can swallow a canoe.
What was reported
In the Peruvian Amazon, river communities tell of the Yacumama, 'mother of the water', a vast serpent said to live at the mouths of rivers and in deep lakes. It is said to be dozens of metres long and able to pull in anything that passes with its breath.
Travellers and rubber workers in the 19th and 20th centuries brought back stories of enormous snakes, and some claimed to have seen them.
Explanations offered
The legend is probably rooted in the green anaconda, the heaviest snake in the world, which can grow longer than 6 metres and lives in the same rivers. Reports of far larger snakes have never been confirmed. Many communities see the Yacumama as a spirit that protects the rivers.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Amazon rivers near Iquitos, Peru
- Witnesses
- River communities of the Amazon
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.