Texas Farmer May Have Captured Legendary Chupacabra (AKA "Goat-Sucker")
Mysterious Animal Kills Chickens, Turkeys
COLEMAN, Texas -- A Texas farmer may have found what some would call a "chupacabra," a legendary animal known for sucking the blood out of goats.
Reggie Lagow set a trap last week after a number of his chickens and turkeys were killed.
What he found in his trap was a mix between a hairless dog, a rat and a kangaroo.
The mystery animal has been sent to Texas Parks and Wildlife in hopes of determining what it is.
More On The Chupacabras...
The Chupacabra or chupacabras is a legendary creature said to exist in parts of the Americas, associated particularly with Mexico. The name, which translates literally from Spanish as "goat-sucker", comes from its 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 Bolivia.
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 roughly "the Goat-sucker" in Spanish. A good way to illustrate the way the word is formed in Spanish is with a sentence like the following:
- El Chupacabras chupa cabras.
- "The Goat-sucker sucks goats."
- Chupacabras are said to prominently appear in three specific forms. The first and most common: a lizard-like being, appearing to have leathery/scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. It stands approximately 3-4 feet high, and stands/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/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 an extinct dog-like reptile. The account during the year 2000 in Nicaragua of a Chupacabra 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 a dog; albeit a little unusual looking one. 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.
BELOW ARE PHOTOS FROM ANOTHER CHUPACABRAS SIGHTING IN TEXAS DURING 2004.
Some say the chupacabra's red eyes have the ability to hypnotize and
paralyze their prey—the prey animal is mentally stunned, allowing the
chupacabra 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 chupacabra sucks all the animal's blood
(and sometimes organs) through a single hole or two holes.
A simple Google Images search for "chupacabra" yields many different (and often laughable) interpretations of their appearance.
AT RIGHT IS A SIMILAR CREATURE CAPTURED IN MARYLAND.
LOCAL VETS CLAIMED THIS ANIMAL WAS A BABY RED FOX WITH MANGE.
History Of The Chupacabras....
The legend of Las 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.
Soon after the animal deaths in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths began being 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. Chupacabra stories began to be released several times at American and Hispanic newscasts across the United States, and chupacabra merchandise, such as t-shirts and baseball hats, were sold.
The chupacabra is generally treated as a product of mass hysteria, though the animal mutilations are sometimes real. Like most cases of such mutilations, however, they are often not as mysterious as they might first appear.
Other Representations Of The Chupacabras...
Looks Like a canine with a bad case of mange