Chupacabra

For other uses, see Chupacabra (disambiguation).

Chupacabras

Creature
Grouping	Cryptid
Data
First reported	March 1995
Country	Puerto Rico Mexico United States
Region	Central and North America

The chupacabras^[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃupaˈkaβɾas], from chupar "to suck" and cabra "goat", literally "goat sucker") is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. It is associated more recently with sightings of an allegedly unknown animal in Puerto Rico (where these sightings were first reported), Mexico, and the United States, especially in the latter's Latin American communities.^[2] The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats.

Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile, and even being spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and The Philippines. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.

Biologists and wildlife management officials view the chupacabras as a contemporary legend.^[3]

In July 2010, an animal was killed and reported to be a chupacabra, but found to be a coyote with a severe parasite infection. In October of that year, University of Michigan scientists theorized that parasite-riddled coyotes (specifically the parasites responsible for scabies and mange) were likely the basis for the chupacabra legend.^[4]

History

The first reported attacks occurred in March 1995 in Puerto Rico.^[5] In this attack, eight sheep were discovered dead, each with three puncture wounds in the chest area and completely drained of blood.^[5] A few months later, in August, an eyewitness, Madelyne Tolentino, reported seeing the creature in the Puerto Rican town of Canóvanas, when as many as 150 farm animals and pets were reportedly killed.^[5] In 1975, similar killings in the small town of Moca, were attributed to El Vampiro de Moca (The Vampire of Moca).^[6] Initially it was suspected that the killings were committed by a Satanic cult; later more killings were reported around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life. Each of the animals had their bodies bled dry through a series of small circular incisions.

Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the term chupacabras soon after the first incidents were reported in the press. Shortly after the first reported incidents in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Brazil, United States, and Mexico.^[5]

Reported sightings

In July 2004, a rancher near San Antonio, Texas, killed a hairless dog-like creature, which was attacking his livestock.^[7] This animal, initially given the name the Elmendorf Beast, was later determined by DNA assay conducted at University of California, Davis to be a coyote with demodectic or sarcoptic mange. In October 2004, two more carcasses were found in the same area. Biologists in Texas examined samples from the two carcasses and determined they were also coyotes suffering from very severe cases of mange.^[8] In Coleman, Texas, a farmer named Reggie Lagow caught an animal in a trap he set up after the deaths of a number of his chickens and turkeys. The animal was described as resembling a mix of hairless dog, rat, and kangaroo. Lagow provided the animal to Texas Parks and Wildlife officials for identification, but Lagow reported in a September 17, 2006 phone interview with John Adolfi, founder of the Lost World Museum, that the "critter was caught on a Tuesday and thrown out in Thursday's trash."^[9]

In April 2006, MosNews reported that the chupacabras was spotted in Russia for the first time. Reports from Central Russia beginning in March 2005 tell of a beast that kills animals and sucks out their blood. 32 turkeys were killed and drained overnight. Reports later came from neighboring villages when 30 sheep were killed and had their blood drained. Finally, eyewitnesses were able to describe the chupacabras. In May 2006, experts were determined to track the animal down.^[10]

In mid-August 2006, Michelle O'Donnell of Turner, Maine, described an "evil looking" rodent-like animal with fangs that had been found dead alongside a road. The animal was apparently struck by a car, and was unidentifiable. Photographs were taken and witness reports seem to be in relative agreement that the creature was canine in appearance, but in widely published photos seemed unlike any dog or wolf in the area. Photos from other angles seem to show a chow- or akita-mixed breed dog. It was reported that "the carcass was picked clean by vultures before experts could examine it". For years, residents of Maine have reported a mysterious creature and a string of dog maulings.^[11]

In May 2007, a series of reports on national Colombia news reported more than 300 dead sheep in the region of Boyaca, and the capture of a possible specimen to be analyzed by zoologists at the National University of Colombia.^[12]

In August 2007, Phylis Canion found three animals in Cuero, Texas. She and her neighbors reported to have discovered three strange animal carcasses outside Canion's property. She took photographs of the carcasses and preserved the head of one in her freezer before turning it over for DNA analysis.^[13] Canion reported that nearly 30 chickens on her farm had been exsanguinated over a period of years, a factor which led her to connect the carcasses with the chupacabras legend. State Mammologist John Young estimated that the animal in Canion's pictures was a Gray Fox suffering from an extreme case of mange. In November 2007, biology researchers at Texas State University–San Marcos determined from DNA samples that the suspicious animal was a coyote.^[14] The coyote, however, had grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin and large fanged teeth, which caused it to appear different from a normal coyote.^[15] Additional skin samples were taken to attempt to determine the cause of the hair loss.^[14]

On January 11, 2008, a sighting was reported at the province of Capiz in the Philippines. Some of the residents from the barangay believed that it was the chupacabras that killed eight chickens. The owner of the chickens saw a dog-like animal attacking his chickens.^[16]

On August 8, 2008, a DeWitt County deputy, Brandon Riedel, filmed an unidentifiable animal along back roads near Cuero, Texas on his dashboard camera.^[17] The animal was about the size of a coyote but was hairless with a long snout, short front legs and long back legs. However, Reiter's boss, Sheriff Jode Zavesky, believes it may be the same species of coyote identified by Texas State University–San Marcos researchers in November 2007.^[18] The video footage was shown on an April 2011 episode of the Syfy television series Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files where an investigative team tried to recreate the dashboard video footage using a miniature horse and a Mexican Hairless Dog (both of which were bred locally). Neither test animal matched the creature in the video. The team had also tested a DNA sample taken from an alleged carcass of one of the creatures found by a local rancher which was later identified as being a hybrid wolf/coyote.

In September 2009, CNN aired a report showing closeup video footage of an unidentified dead animal. The same CNN report stated that locals have begun speculating the possibility that this might be a chupacabras. A Blanco, Texas, taxidermist reported that he received the body from a former student whose cousin had discovered the animal in his barn, where it had succumbed to poison left out for rodents. The taxidermist expressed his belief that this is a genetically mutated coyote.^[19][20]

On September 18, 2009, taxidermist Jerry Ayer sold the Blanco Texas Chupacabra to the Lost World Museum. The museum, as reported in the Syracuse Post Standard on 9/26/09, is placing the creature on display as they work with a unnamed university to have the remains tested.

The most recent sighting was on July 4, 2011. Jack (Jeff) Crabtree, of Lake Jackson, Texas, reported seeing a chupacabra in his back yard. At first Crabtree stood firmly on his original theory of the chupacabra, but after the local newspaper and several other media reporters wrote his story on July 11 he quickly backed down, agreeing with wildlife experts that it was most likely a coyote with mange. "It was a spoof or a practical joke," Crabtree said. "...I really didn't believe it." His story appeared on CNN, as well as MSNBC. ^{[21][22][23] [24] [25] [26]} On July 15, 2011 local authorities caught what Crabtree saw. Experts confirmed that the animal was definitely a coyote with mange.^[27]

Captured or killed

On December 18, 2010, in Nelson County, Kentucky, Mark Cothren shot and killed an animal that he could not recognize and feared.^[28] Many pictures of the Chupacabra were taken and the story was well documented by various news organizations. Cothren described the creature as having large ears, whiskers, a long tail, and about the size of a house cat. Cothren says he spoke with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and handed over the preserved animal for further analysis.^[29]

Solving the mystery of chupacabra

In July 2010, there were reports of chupacabras being shot dead by animal control officers in Hood County, Texas. A second creature was also reportedly spotted and killed several miles away.^{[30][31][32][33]} However, an officer of Hood County animal control said Texas A&M University scientists conducted tests and identified the corpse as a "coyote-dog hybrid" with signs of mange and internal parasites. The second reported chupacabra, shot July 9 about 8 miles south of Cresson, was eaten by vultures before it could be taken for testing.^[34]

New information from researcher Benjamin Radford in 2010 revealed that Madelyne Tolentino, the original eyewitness, had described a creature she had recently seen in the science-fiction horror film Species as the chupacabra.^[35] The alien in the film, named Sil, is nearly identical to Tolentino’s chupacabra eyewitness account: “It was a creature that looked like the chupacabra, with spines on its back and all....The resemblance to the chupacabra was really impressive,” Tolentino reported.^[36] Radford revealed that Tolentino “believed that the creatures and events she saw in Species were actually happening in reality in Puerto Rico at the time,” and therefore concludes that “The popular image of the chupacabra—the one appearing on thousands of books, magazines, and Web sites as a credible eyewitness description—is in fact based on a science fiction film.”^[35] This, Radford believes, seriously undermines the credibility of the chupacabra as a real animal.^[37]

Radford spent five years investigating and solved the mystery of the creature’s origin in his 2011 book Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore. The investigation included eyewitness interviews, forensic and folkloric research, and "a field expedition to the jungles of Nicaragua" in search of the legendary monster.^[38][39]

In late October 2010, University of Michigan biologist Barry O'Connor concluded that all of the 'chupacabras' were simply coyotes infected with the parasite Sarcoptes scabiei, the symptoms of which would explain most of the features of the chupacabras: they would be left with little fur, thickened skin, and rank odour. O'Connor theorized the attacks on goats occurred "because these animals are greatly weakened, they're going to have a hard time hunting. So they may be forced into attacking livestock because it's easier than running down a rabbit or a deer." ^[4]

Appearance

The most common description of chupacabras is a reptile-like being, appearing to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back.^[40] This form stands approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a similar fashion to a kangaroo.^[41] In at least one sighting, the creature was reported to hop 20 feet (6 m). This variety is said to have a dog or panther-like nose and face, a forked tongue, and large fangs. It is said to hiss and screech when alarmed, as well as leave behind a sulfuric stench.^[41] When it screeches, some reports assert that the chupacabras' eyes glow an unusual red which gives the witnesses nausea.

Another description of chupacabras, although not as common, describes a strange breed of wild dog.^[41] This form is mostly hairless and has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. It is claimed that this breed might be an example of a dog-like reptile. Unlike conventional predators, the chupacabras is said to drain all of the animal's blood (and sometimes organs) usually through three holes in the shape of an upside-down triangle or through one or two holes.^[42]

Significant appearances in media

The popularity of the chupacabras has resulted in it being featured in several types of media. Some mystery novels that use aspects of the myth as the centerpoint of the plot have been published.^[43] Other kinds of books include those that provide a scientific explanation for the phenomena.^[44][45] The chupacabras has been featured in films such as Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico and in independent film productions including: Chupacabra: Dark Seas, starring John Rhys-Davies, Guns of El Chupacabra, starring Scott Shaw, El Chupacabras and Vuelve el Chupacabras.^{[citation needed]} Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals have a song on the 1997 album "Radiator" called "Chupacabras".^[46] An entire episode of The X-Files series, El Mundo Gira, is devoted to the chupacabras. A whole segment in Dexter's Laboratory is for the chupacabras in the episode called "Got Your Goat" from the Season 2. A Brazilian jungle monster from Generator Rex turns out to be a chupacabra. A chupacabras appears as a legendary creature in the video game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, where it takes the appearance of a cross between a hyena and a boar. It has also been portrayed various times in the anime series Negima!?.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has described the chupacabras as the "Bigfoot of Latino culture" and has stated that "El Chupacabra also symbolizes the fear of something that doesn't exist".^[2] Following the incident in Cuero, Texas the popularity of the chupacabras myth was receiving global attention.^[47] Phylis Canion, who was responsible for capturing the alleged specimen, claimed that t-shirts highlighting the event were shipped to locations such as Italy, Guam, and Iraq. The publicity that Cuero received following this event has led to some suggesting changing the town's mascot.^[47] In July 2008, History's Monster Quest series featured the Texas carcasses, which were determined to be dogs and coyotes.^[48]

Naming convention

Chupacabras can be translated as "goat-sucker." It is known as both chupacabras and chupacabra throughout the Americas, with the former being the original word,^[1] and the latter a regularization of it. The name in Spanish can be preceded by singular masculine article (el chupacabras), or the plural masculine article (los chupacabras).

Related legends

In the Philippines, another legendary creature called the Sigbin shares many of the same descriptions as the Chupacabra. The recent discovery of the cat-fox in Southeast Asia suggests that it could also have been simply sightings of this once unknown animal.^[49]

The Peuchen of Chile also share similarities in their supposed habits, but instead of being dog-like they are described as winged snakes. This legend may have originated from the vampire bat, an animal endemic to the region.^[50]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Diccionario Clave, chupacabras. It states that both singular and plural is chupacabras.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Illegal Immigrants Frightened by Raid Rumors; George Bush: "The Decider"; "Happy Slapping"". CNN. May 2, 2006. http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/02/lt.01.html. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
3. ^ Miried Gonzalez Rodriguez (in Spanish). Dizfrazado el chupacabras. Puerto Rico: Primera Hora. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Chupacabra Mystery Solved". Discovery News. 2010-10-22. http://news.discovery.com/animals/chupacabra-mystery-solved.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Stephen Wagner. "On the trail of the Chupacabras". http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
6. ^ Stephen Wagner. "Encounters with Chupacabras". http://paranormal.about.com/cs/chupacabra/a/aa071403.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
7. ^ Walker Robinson (August 3, 2004). "Chupacabra? Strange Animal Found in Elmendorf". WOAI. Archived from the original on November 9, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20051109030151/http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=FAE91F84-A264AC3-8EA4-9097690CDEFC. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
8. ^ "Texas' Blood-Sucking Monster". http://www.banderasnews.com/0603/art-chupacabra.htm. Retrieved June 12, 2007. 
9. ^ "Texas Farmer Claims He Caught Legendary 'Chupacabra'". KNBC Los Angeles. August 25, 2005. http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4895053/detail.html. ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "Chupacabra the Goatsucker Vampire Sightings Reported in Central Russia". MosNews. April 17, 2006. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/04/27/chupacabra.shtml. ^{[dead link]}
11. ^ "'Hybrid Mutant' Found Dead in Maine". Associated Press. August 16, 2006. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MYSTERY_BEAST?SITE=WWL&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME. ^{[dead link]}
12. ^ "Bestia' chupasangre asusta a los campesinos de Chiscas: ha matado 310 animales'". El Tiempo. May 2, 2007. http://www.eltiempo.com/nacion/boyaca/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3539469.html. ^{[dead link]}
13. ^ "Has a mythical beast turned up in Texas?". August 31, 2007. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070831/ap_on_re_us/mythical_chupacabra_1;_ylt=AnDelIZ4v5tFOrVuRPy0I_EE1vAI. ^{[dead link]}
14. ^ ^{a b} "Texas State researchers solve mystery of Cuero chupacabra". Texas State University News Service. November 1, 2007. http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2007/11/Chupacabra110107.html. 
15. ^ "Texas Woman Claims to Have Found Mythical 'Chupacabra'". Foxnews.com. Associated Press. November 2, 2007. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307576,00.html. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
16. ^ "'Blood Suckerkilling farm animals in Capiz'". Inquirer. January 11, 2008. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=112177. ^{[dead link]}
17. ^ "Legend Lives On'". FOXNews. August 12, 2008. http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?referralObject=3018890. ^{[dead link]}
18. ^ "'Is this Texas' goat-sucker'". CNN. August 11, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/12/pkg.tx.chupucabra.kens. 
19. ^ CNN video report, 9/3/09.
20. ^ Texas mystery: 'Defective coyote' or chupacabra?, CNN, September 4, 2009.
21. ^ "Gotta Watch: Mythical creatures – This Just In". News.blogs.cnn.com. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/12/gotta-watch-mythical-creatures/. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
22. ^ "Chupacabra reportedly spotted in Lake Jackson". The Facts. http://thefacts.com/news/article_ad86217c-ab69-11e0-88a5-001cc4c002e0.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
23. ^ "Believe in chupacabra? LJ man now changes his story". The Facts. http://thefacts.com/news/article_7022944e-ac38-11e0-b68b-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
24. ^ "Chupacabra Roaming In Lake Jackson? - Houston News Story — KPRC Houston". Click2houston.com. 2011-07-11. http://www.click2houston.com/news/28514536/detail.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
25. ^ "'Chupacabra' rears its ugly head in Texas". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43720331/ns/technology_and_science-science/. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
26. ^ "Photos of peculiar animal near Lake Jackson spark rumors of mythical chupacabra | abc13.com". Abclocal.go.com. 2011-07-11. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8244125. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
27. ^ "Updates for July 16, 2011". The Facts. 2011-07-16. http://thefacts.com/news/article_22105550-af50-11e0-b332-001cc4c002e0.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
28. ^ "Mysterious creature found in Nelson County". Wave3.com. 2010-12-23. http://www.wave3.com/story/13731615/mysterious-creature-found-in-nelson-county. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
29. ^ chupacabra-kentucky/ Man Shoots, Kills 'Chupacabra' in Ky^{[dead link]}
30. ^ "msnbc.com Video Player". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38224385#38224385. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
31. ^ "Chupacabra found? Officer kills it, claims: 'It wasn't normal'". Blastr. 2010-07-13. http://blastr.com/2010/07/chupacabra-found-officer.php. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
32. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
33. ^ "Was El Chupacabra Spied in Texas?". Fox News. July 15, 2010. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/14/was-el-chupacabra-spied-texas/. 
34. ^ "Expert: 'Chupacabra' a coyote-dog hybrid". UPI.com. 2010-07-14. http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/07/14/Expert-Chupacabra-a-coyote-dog-hybrid/UPI-80031279145698/. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
35. ^ ^{a b} Radford, Benjamin. 2010. Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. ISBN 978-0-936455-11-2
36. ^ Corrales, Scott. Chupacabras: And Other Mysteries. ISBN 1883729068
37. ^ Radford, Benjamin. "Slaying the Vampire: Solving the Chupacabra Mystery" Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 35 No. 3, May/June 2011, Pages 45 - 48
38. ^ Benjamin Radford (January 2011). "HR Giger's Reel Alien". Fortean Times. http://www.forteantimes.com/features/fbi/5044/hr_gigers_reel_alien.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
39. ^ Radford, Ben (May/June 2011). "Slaying the Vampire: Solving the Chupacabra Mystery". Skeptical Inquirer (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) 35 (3): 45. 
40. ^ "Chupacabras Biography". http://skepdic.com/chupa.html. Retrieved May 10, 2007. 
41. ^ ^{a b c} Stephen Wagner. "The Top 10 Most Mysterious Creatures of Modern Times". http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa010101b.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
42. ^ Tomás De Jesús Mangual (January 9, 2006). "Imputan otro ataque al Chupacabras". El Vocero. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20071011110443/http://vocero.com/noticias.asp?s=Locales&n=23285. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
43. ^ Wagner, Lloyd. El Chupacabras: Trail of the Goatsucker. ISBN 059533315X
44. ^ Corrales, Scott. Chupacabras: And Other Mysteries. ISBN 1883729068
45. ^ Authors, Mandy, and Clifton C. Phillips. Chupacabra, You Don't Scare Me! ISBN 0805944907
46. ^ Chupacabras(lyrics). Super Furry Animals. Radiator (album). 1997
47. ^ ^{a b} "Chupacabra craze goes global". KVUE. August 28, 2007. Archived from the original on December 4, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071204230222/http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/082807kvuechupacabracraze-cb.7c603ee0.html. Retrieved October 5, 2007. 
48. ^ "MonsterQuest: Chupacabra". July 23, 2008. http://www.history.com/minisites/monsterquest. Retrieved July 24, 2008. 
49. ^ Meek, James (2005-12-07). "On the trail of the Borneo cat-fox". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,13369,1660581,00.html. Retrieved 2007-07-23. 
50. ^ Article: Tras los pasos del chupacabras. El centro, Journal. 26-07-2004 (Spanish)^{[dead link]}

External links

• Alleged chupacabra likely a "Xolo dog"; story a hoax
• Lost World Museum buys Blanco Texas Chupacabra article Syracuse Post Standard 9/26/09