Chupacabra

For the heavy metal album by SOiL, see El Chupacabra (album).

The Chupacabra is a creature said to inhabit parts of the Americas--associated particularly with Puerto Rico, where it was first reported--and Mexico.

Photo of what is alleged to be a chupacabras

The name, which translates literally from Spanish as "goat-sucker", comes from its reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock.

Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Sightings began in Puerto Rico in the early 1990s, and have since been reported as far north as the Carolinas and as far south as Chile.

Though some argue that the chupacabra may be a real creature, mainstream scientists and experts generally contend that the chupacabra is a legendary creature, or a type of urban legend.

History

The legend of los Chupacabras began in about 1992, when Puerto Rican newspapers El Vocero and El Nuevo Dia began reporting the killings of many different types of animals, such as birds, horses, and, as its name implies, goats. At the time it was known as El Vampiro de Moca since some of the first killings occurred in the small town of Moca. While at first it was suspected that the killings were done randomly by some members of a satanic cult, eventually these killings spread around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life. The killings had one pattern in common: each of the animals found dead had two punctured holes around their necks.

The term "chupacabra" was supposedly coined by Puerto Rican television personality Silverio Pérez, who intended the name to be a joke.

Soon after the animal deaths in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Brazil, the United States and, most notably, Mexico. Both in Puerto Rico and Mexico, El Chupacabras gained urban legend status. Chupacabras stories began to be released several times in American and Hispanic newscasts across the United States, and chupacabras merchandise, such as t-shirts and baseball hats, was sold.

The chupacabras is generally treated as a product of mass hysteria, though the animal mutilations are sometimes real. Like many cases of such mutilations, however, it's been argued that they are often not as mysterious as they might first appear.

Sightings

Certain South American rain forest natives believe in the "mosquito-man", a mythical creature of their folklore that pre-dates modern chupacabras sightings. The mosquito-man sucks the blood from animals through his long nose, like a big mosquito. Some say mosquito-man and chupacabras are the same.

Notable sightings in the United States include one reported by multiple eye-witnesses in Calaveras County, California, and at a recent birthday celebration of a Development Team member of a local charity in Houston, Texas. According to these reports, the creature was sighted for the first time in the early to middle 1990s, harming animals of different species - although it is now thought that people did this themselves.

File:Chupatexas704.jpg

The Elmendorf Beast

In July of 2004, a rancher near San Antonio, Texas, killed a hairless, dog-like creature (the Elmendorf Creature) that was attacking his livestock. It was later determined to be a coyote with demodectic mange. In October of 2004, two animals which closely resemble the Elmendorf creature were observed in the same area. The first was dead, and the second was noticed by a local zoologist who was called to identify the animal while she was travelling to the location where the first was found. Specimens were studied by biologists in Texas; the creatures are thought to have been canines with skin problems and facial deformities.

A famous appearance in the city of Varginha, Brazil, is sometimes attributed to the chupacabras. However, many people associate the being with an extraterrestrial, rather than a chupacabras. See Varginha incident for more details. In 1997, many cases were reported in Brazilian newspapers.

Another sighting in Brazil comes from a police officer, who claimed to get a nauseous feeling when he saw a dog-like chupacabra in a tree.

Supposed appearance

File:VentureBrothersChupacabra.jpg

A chupacabras briefly appears in one episode of the cartoon show The Venture Bros.

Chupacabras are said to prominently appear in three specific forms.

The first and most common: a lizard-like being, appearing to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. It stands approximately 3-4 feet high, and stands and hops in a similar fashion as a kangaroo (in at least one sighting, the creature hopped 20 feet). This variety is said to have a dog or panther-like nose and face, a forked tongue protruding from it, large fangs, and is said to hiss and screech when alarmed, as well as to leave a sulfuric stench behind.

The second variety also stands and hops as a kangaroo, and it has coarse fur with greyish facial hair. The head is similar to a dog's, and its mouth has large teeth.

The third form is simply that of a strange breed of wild dog that is mostly hairless, has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, teeth, and claws, but is otherwise a typical canine. This animal is said to be the result of interbreeding between several populations of wild dogs, though enthusiasts claim that it might be an example of a dog-like reptile. The account during the year 2000 in Nicaragua of a chupacabras corpse being found supports the conclusion that it is simply a strange breed of wild dog. The alleged corpse of the animal was found in Tolapa, Nicaragua, and forensically analyzed at UNAN-Leon. Pathologists at the University found that it was just an unusual-looking dog. It should be noted that there are very striking morphological differences between different breeds of dogs (which wild dogs are generally descended from) that easily account for the strange characteristics of such an animal.

Some say the chupacabras' red eyes have the ability to hypnotize and paralyze their prey—the prey animal is mentally stunned, allowing the chupacabras to suck the animal's blood at its leisure. The effect is similar to the bite of the vampire bat or certain snakes or spiders that stun their prey with venom. Unlike conventional predators, the chupacabras sucks all the animal's blood (and sometimes organs) through a single hole or two holes.

Naming convention

The creature is known as both "chupacabras" and "chupacabra" throughout the Americas, with the former probably being the original word, and the latter a regularization of it. The name can be preceded by the masculine definite article ("el chupacabras"), which means "the goat-sucker" in Spanish.

Krysti (the girl next to me is not smart. She's playing with a camera and needs to stop. P.S. The picture above isn't the goat man it's her w/o makeup

Related Topics

• Chupacabra, a West Canadian hardcore punk band
• Cryptozoology
• Vampire

Similar creatures include:

• Jersey Devil
• Skunk Ape
• Mothman
• Monkey-man of New Delhi

External links

• The Goat-Legged Creature of Calavaras County
• A Skeptic's take on the Chupacabras
• A Straight Dope article on the chupacabras
• "Chupacabras! The Legend Begins" Real Player documentary on the Chupacabras
• Possible capture of Chupacabras on August 25, 2005 (with pictures and video)
• "Chupacabras Race 100km" "The most fun mountain bike race in the world"