Chupacabra

Chupacabra is a legendary animal, reportedly first sighted in Puerto Rico, literally means goat sucker. A cryptid whose existence is as of now unrecognized by science (much like the Loch Ness, Yeti, and Bigfoot), is rumored to be an animal that attacks livestock and drinks their blood, especially that of goats.
Reportedly sighted in Mexico, United States and even spotted in Russia and Indonesia, more than one description of the being is in vogue. One appearance of the goat sucker has been described as a heavy reptile-like animal, almost as big as a small bear, with sharp spines from the neck to the tail’s base. The being is covered with scales and sports a greenish-gray colored skin. The creature has a height of about 4 feet and hops (much like a kangaroo) as much as 20 feet. Many of the sightings talked about the creature as having the face of a dog, nose similar to that of a panther, large fangs and a split tongue. When disturbed, it supposedly screeches and leaves behind a lurid sulfuric stench in the vicinity. The eyes are blood red when the being screeches and this purportedly nauseates those who are looking at it.
The second description is that of a wild strange dog. The hairless creature has unusually large fangs and claws. With larger-than-normal eye sockets, the dog-like creature has a pronounced spinal ridge and also looks like a reptile.
The chupacabra drains all the blood and, sometimes the organs too, of its prey through three holes in the body placed in the corners of a triangle that is upside down or even through one or two holes.
History
In the year 1975 was reported incidents of animals killing in the town of Moca in Puerto Rico. The killings were attributed to a vampire that was named the Vampire of Moca.

Elmendorf Beast

Many such killings of the same pattern reportedly followed which then was blamed as being committed by a satanic cult. Many farms reported death of animals that bore puncture wounds in the form of circular incisions.
The first time that an attack of chupacabra on goats was reported was as early as in March 1995 in Puerto Rico. Eight dead sheep were discovered with triangular puncture wounds in the chest. They were drained of all blood from their bodies. In August, in the same year, Madelyne Tolentino, claimed to have seen the chupacabra in a town of Puerto Rico called Canovanas. In that incident, about 150 animals in a farm were reported killed.
An entrepreneur in Puerto Rico is credited with coining the term ‘chupacabra’ soon after the first of these kinds of incidents were reported by the press.
Thereafter, the press reported sightings of chupacabra in many countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Nicaragua, United States, Mexico, etc.
Reports on Chupacabra Sightings
A hairless creature, much like a dog, was shot by a rancher in July 2004. Nicknamed the Elmendorf Beast, it was shot when it attacked the rancher’s livestock. However, laboratory analysis proved that it was a coyote that was infested with mites. Two more carcasses were found around the same area a couple of months later which were also confirmed as bodies of infected coyotes. In 2006, a farmer in Texas claimed he caught an animal that was causing the death of his chickens and he claimed the animal appeared to be the mixture of a rat, a hairless dog and a kangaroo. However, nothing conclusive was found out.

The Chupacabras in Puebla and Guanajuato Over 300 goats decapitated.

This was followed by sightings of chupacabras in Russia in April 2006. Another report claimed that a mysterious animal was killing livestock in Central Russia in 2005. Some other villages also came up with similar reports. August 2006 saw reports from Maine in the United States about a mysterious carcass of an animal that had enormous fangs. It was later announced that the body was unidentifiable because of vultures’ attacks. For many years there were reports from near the Maine area reported sightings of a mystery beast that mauled like a dog.

Chupacabra – goat sucker

In about August 2007, three animal carcasses were found near a farm in Texas. Laboratory analysis later showed the carcasses to be that of coyotes’ that were badly infected with mange. In January 2008, chupacabras were reportedly sighted in Capiz province of the Philippines. An owner of eight chickens believed he saw a dog-like animal attacking his fowl. In the same year in August, a county deputy in Texas filmed an unidentified animal which was as big as a coyote, with shorter front limbs and longer hind limbs and a long snout. There was nothing that could specifically identify the animal.
In the year 2009, in September, there was a CNN footage which showed the video of an unidentified animal carcass in Blanco Texas that was speculated to be that of a chupacabra. A taxidermist who received the body sold it to a museum for further testing and display. In the 2010, chupacabras were allegedly shot down in a county in Texas. However, tests conducted by university experts identified one of them to be a mange-infected coyote dog hybrid. The other corpse, found miles away, could not be identified.
In December 2010, in Kentucky, a man named Mark Kothren killed an unrecognized animal that had large ears, long tail, large whiskers, etc. He was quoted as saying that he handed over the body to the Wildlife Resources department for further tests. In July 2011, another chupacabra sighting was reported in Texas which was later confirmed to be a coyote with mange after officials managed to capture the creature.

Chupacabra – large ears, long tail, large whiskers…

In spite of the many alleged sightings of the chupacabras and the significant appearances of these strange creatures in the media such as books, anime series, games and movies owing to the popularity that they gained, there has been no conclusive scientific evidence on their existence. A research conducted by Benjamin Radford into the sightings at places such as Puerto Rico and Madelyne Tolentinocame out with the conclusion that witnesses’ description of the creature was influenced by that of the creature shown in the movie, ‘Species’. The post-mortem examination on the animal bodies was never conclusive about the alleged blood sucking capabilities of the chupacabra.

Chupacabra’s attack, mark on dog’s leg.

In fact, tests on about 300 dead animals showed that none of the animals were completely drained of their blood.
Radford’s reports suggested that people tended to call mange-affected coyotes chupacabras because of their strange appearance. These strange creatures in the United States which were sighted were found out to be scabies infected coyotes: they were hairless, they left a pervasive odor and had thick skin. It was easier for such sick animals to hunt domesticated fowl than animals in the wild.
Many people who allegedly believed that chupacabras existed said that the killers were not coyotes because the fowl was left uneaten. This argument was also thought to be ineffective by the scientists who said that coyotes can leave behind uneaten prey because of inexperience and because of injuries that may have been sustained. Animals may have died due to hemorrhaging after the attack. The holes were just the punctures of the canines that the attackers left on the prey. This is the singular way in which most animals on land catch their prey.
Most biologists and contemporary wildlife scientists, however, believe that the chupacabra is non-existent and the sightings are mere cases of mistaken identities.