This creature, goatsucker, leaves dead animals in its wake, those who have encountered it terrified, questioning their senses, and cryptozoologists mystified.
Earliest Reported Encounters with the Four-legged Vampire
Jerome Clark, Unexplained! (Visible Ink Press, 1999) and Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, Cryptozoology* A to Z (A Fireside Book, 1999) wrote about this newest encountered cryptoid that was first reported in Puerto Rico, then in Mexico.
According to Coleman and Clark, in March, bloodless bodies of goats, chickens and other small animals were found near Orocovis and Morovis, PR in March 1995. In September, the first reported sightings of the beast began. In Unexplained! The dates are between February and July of 1975 when the bodies were found and farmers heard screeches, hums or wings flapping when they found the bodies.
Another source states that reports of Chupacabras can be found in newspapers dating back to the 1950s and that the first reported case in North America was in Arizona around 1956. Incidents have been reported in New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, Brazil and Mexico. Most of the reports have in Puerto Rico, primarily in 1995.
Evidence of El Chupacabra
Most of the reports involve slain animals with puncture marks on their necks. El Chupacabra favors goats as victims, hence the name goatsucker. It is also referred to as El Vampiro de Moca and Chupa. The nearest reported cryptoid relative is The Jersey Devil.
The owners of the dead animals say that the animal is drained of blood, but not maimed or ravaged in any other way. Usually, there is no evidence of any struggle. There are two or three puncture wounds on the animals’ necks.
Although descriptions of the beast vary, there are some characteristics that recur. Most witnesses describe the cryptoid as between four and a half to five and a half feet tall, has long spikes from the back of its neck along the spine and ends at the rump and has fiery red glowing eyes in an oval shaped face.
Many who have seen the Chupacabra say it has a very unpleasant odor like sulfur. Others say it does not smell. Some say the skin is like a frog’s and others report is has skin like a furry lizard. It usually walks on its two hind legs, like a kangaroo, but has been seen to run on all four legs.
Cryptozoologists’, UFOlogists’ and Others’ Theories
The most popular theories among UFOlogists are that the critter is a pet left by aliens or that it is a cross breed between an animal and an alien created by NASA scientists. Some zoologists think it is a mutated vampire bat. While others have proposed the animals were killed by a pack of wild dogs but dogs don’t drain bodies of blood and they eat at least part of their kill.
There have been recent cases of people finding carcasses of what they believed to be a Chupacabra but when the bodies were examined, they turned out to be coyotes or other canines that had mange.
Could the Chupacabra be a figment of peoples’ imaginations or a hoax? Could one of the theories be correct? Until one is captured, killed or a body of the beast is found, Chupa remains a mystery.
