July 31, 2008
MQ: Chupacabra
Chupacabra means "Goat Sucker" in Spanish. The name comes from the victims of this creature's apparent predation: goats and smaller farm animals, found with puncture wounds around the neck and apparently drained of blood. The first epidemic of animals found like this seems to have occurred around fifteen years ago in Puerto Rico. Locals who believed they saw the creature described it as somewhat humanoid, with kangaroo-like hind legs and glowing red eyes. Needless to say, outside of Puerto Rico this made for a good story but no one really took it seriously.
More than a decade later, animals are being found in similar conditions right here in the United States, across the State of Texas. The animals seem to have been attacked in a manner consistent with the victims of the Puerto Rican incidents, but the witnesses in Texas give a slightly different description of the assailant: it runs on four legs.
What it most interesting to me is that other than the seemingly drastic difference between a bipedal animal and a quadraped, the descriptions are otherwise consistent. Both creatures are said to have dark, mostly hairless skin, long fangs and a host of other minor similarities. What makes the Texas case inarguably stronger are the corpses. Yes, corpses — plural.
One man had seen a creature near his farm on multiple occasions and the creature had vanished each time he'd run into his house to get the gun, so he left a rifle outside where he could get to it quick and the next time he saw it the man managed to put it down with one shot. But this wasn't the only animal found, there were also three others. Some were roadkill, but all were in fairly good condition when photos were taken of the bodies. One woman had even frozen the head of one of the animals in case someone wanted to have it tested at some point, and the MonsterQuest team was excited to oblige.
All the experts agreed that these animals looked decidedly canid (doglike) but also decidedly odd. They were mostly hairless and the skin was dark gray, and leathery — witnesses described it as similar to an elephant's skin. Analysis of the dead tissue was unable to determine if the animal was a normal canine suffering from "Mange" — a type of parasitic infection dogs can get which is caused by a certain type of mite. Dogs with Mange typically suffer from severe hair loss and skin irritation, however typically this affects localized areas, not the entire animal. Unfortunately, because the skin tissue sample had been dead for some time there was no trace of the mites, and their absence could not be taken to mean they had never been there. They were able to make a determination that the animal did have normal hair folicles and therefore likely had hair at some time. Whether it lost it due to a normal process of maturity or a parasitic infection remained unknown.
Hair samples taken from various locations — including a purported Chupacabra nest in Puerto Rico — were compared at a structural level. This led to another interesting determination: The animals the hair came from were all canids, including the Puerto Rican sample. In fact, the similarity between the samples was apparently very great, so they were likely the same or very similar species.
The DNA told a slightly different story. Some of the samples came back as coyote, while others came back as domestic dog. Photographically, none of these animals looked much like either, however — in fact, they looked more like each other than the separate species they were determined to be. On the one hand, DNA doesn't lie, but without knowing the specificity of the test used it's conceivable that the DNA might be very similar to those two species, but have slight variations. What seems odd and inescapable though is that they were different from each other.
It was not discussed within the episode, but the only explanation that seems to fit that fact along with all the others is some type of infection — perhaps not Mange, not Rabies, but something else — which can infect canids, causes a skin leathering condition that in turn causes the animal to lose nearly all its fur, and also perhaps causes behavioral changes in the animals which explain the attacks.
What seems very clear is that unlike so many other cryptozoological cases, there is abundant evidence that some predator is behaving in a previously undocumented way. In this sense, there is really no question that the chupacabra exists. Whether the dead canid specimens represent this predator is less clear, but the eyewitnesses seem certain of it. The part that remains wholly dark is whether there is a species of predator completely unknown to science, a known predator acting in a previously undocumented way, an unknown disease which infects a known predator, or something entirely different altogether.
Many witnesses who are familiar with coyotes and even mangy coyotes, and certainly with dogs, maintain that what they've seen doesn't fall into any of those categories while the scientists maintain that the specimens provided seem to. There is still a mystery here to be solved, but given the abundance of evidence I thought this was perhaps the most fascinating case I've seen yet. Whether there is a new species or not, something has been killing farm animals in a very strange way and we have the corpses of some very strange animals. There is no doubt enough evidence exists to warrant some serious additional research into the matter.
Filed under MonsterQuest, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on MQ: Chupacabra »
Wes @ 3:28 pm
I also think this was perhaps the most fascinating MQ yet in that it reached a likely scientific explanation for the U.S. reports of Chupacabra.
The similar appearance and reported behavior of the animals represented in the bodies examined seem to offer a logical basis to conclude that they and their kind are responsible for the Chupacabra reports.
I'm surprised that they didn't follow up on a possible explanation for the animals: if a coyote and dog mated somewhere in Mexico, it's likely that the offspring would also mate with each other, producing a hybrid creature. Such inbreeding could very easily cause genetic defects – such as the lack of hair and leathery skin – that we see in the creatures, and could explain the DNA and the animal's predatory nature.
jack @ 11:09 am
What annoyed me is that the show talking about how they feed but did nothing to research it.
The bodies looked amazingly clean for having their blood–all of it–drained
Patrick @ 12:45 pm
OK, so CNN.com just showed footage captured by a local sheriff about 4 days ago of El Chupacabra!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/12/pkg.tx.chupucabra.kens
Oubliette @ 5:42 pm
WOW! That video is amazing. Can there be any doubt now that a new creature exists?
I've been away lately so am playing catch up. When I saw the MQ show on this, I thought that it doesn't get much better. At least, unlike Bigfoot, there are bodies, and they look very, very similar. And the eyewitness testimonies cannot be ignored.
This is definitely some new kind of hybrid canine. One statement in the show really made me sit up: someone mentioned that it may be an "evolutionary leap". This makes sense. The idea goes that evolution hops along for a while and then suddenly it takes a huge leap, seemingly bypassing many generations and creating a brand new animal (or plant, for that matter) is one of the newer ideas in genetics. To me, this is an example of that. It is very exciting and an advancement for cryptozoology.
There are two questions I have:
1) is this really related to the Puerto Rican Chupacabras? There seems to be many differences, as well as some similiarities. But the differences seem to really complicate matters.
2) Where does the blood sucking come in? This is not how canines eat their kill. It's almost like someone threw in some vampire bat genes to further complicate matters.
Those teeth are certainly out of proportion for any canidid. The hairlessness I find intriguing, and I have a story to tell about that.
There is a beagle rescue that comes to our local Petsmart every Saturday. Last year, one of the adoptees named "Gabe" was a normal beagle except that he was almost completely hairless. He had fur on his head, ears and tail but otherwise was a color very similar to this strange animal. A number of vets did all kinds of tests on him, yet could find no evidence of disease of any kind.
The conclusion: somewhere in his genes there must have been a Chinese Crested dog, as strange as that sounds. It is weird to see the muscles move when there is no fur covering them. He was 100% beagle otherwise. If DNA tests were not so expensive, it would have been interesting to have one done on him.
I searched for pics but I guess because it was so long ago (and he was adopted by someone) they were taken down from the Internet sites he was listed on.
So anything is possible, I guess. I do know one of the scientists in the episode concluded that one of the specimens had hair at one time, which would point to severe mange. But somehow, I just don't buy it. And having seen Gabe, I do believe a hairless dog is possible.
So….how does the blood feeding fit in? That's the strangest thing of all.
Patrick @ 7:45 am
I wonder if there is blood feeding. That ground in Texas is so dry, it could suck up fluids fast. Maybe there is a reason they didn't take the kills with them to feed. It does seem odd however.
Logisti @ 9:49 am
Yeah, the blood drinking aspect of this whole thing seems the most unlikely, however three possibilities pop to mind:
1) Patrick's suggestion that the blood loss is coincidental
2) The possibility that (assuming a previously healthy animal suffering from mange or ther disease) the animal is too weak to kill in the normal canine fashion and falls back to a secondary kill style (perhaps not understood by current zoology) which has these characteristics.
3) Since the issue of blood isn't mentioned in every attack it may also be possible that not all the attacks share this anomaly (and those that do might be explained by a more random/desperate version of the #2 possible explanation)
As for Puerto Rico, the hair samples seemed to match but since the Puerto Rican sample came from a hole in the ground that was *rumored* to be a Chupacabra Den. I mean, forget about 1st hand evidence, this isn't even 2nd hand evidence. Even if it *was* a Chupacabra den, the hair could belong to some local dog that ran in there after it, or chasing a smell.
The descriptions (aside from the kangaroo-like hind legs and hairless aspect) seem to be very different physically and the Puerto Rican witnessess seem adamant they didn't see anything resembling a canine, however this could just be an example of how unreliable eyewitness testimony really is, despite what we'd like to think about valuing human judgement and experiences.
So there really isn't much to go on as far as the Puerto Rican connection, unfortunately.
Wes @ 3:06 pm
As for the blood "draining" – my impression is that this is an aspect that's more part of the myth than the reality, and that it stems more from the relatively bloodless nature of the kills than an actual examination of the animals that reveals them to have been drained of blood. To drain a good-size goat of all its blood would undoubtedly be something that would take some time and effort.
To me what we are seeing is animals killed quickly by asphyxiation and/or shock rather than from the bites, resulting in the relative lack of blood – once the heart stops beating, the blood will pool and clot around any wounds rather quickly.
Oubliette @ 4:27 pm
Wes-good point. That's the only part that doesn't really fit into the picture.
I'm not sure whether the animals really have been completely drained of blood. If so, then it would mean that somehow all blood in the body got reabsorbed somehow. But aren't the dead animals not eaten? I have to re-watch the episode.
I remember the big deal made about dead animals bodies being found with certain organs missing "with surgical precision" and blamed on everything from UFOs to satanic cults. The truth of the matter was that the bodies got that way by normal predator scavaging and the effects of decomposition. Carcasses had been placed in various places and the cameras recorded how an animals body is worked on, so to speak, buy other animals as well as the elements. The results were exactly like the "unexplainable" finds.
So the best thing here would be to try and record one of these hybrids while feeding. If they do suck blood, then it can be shown as a fact. Otherwise, it does have that mythological component that is hard to ignore.
jack @ 9:36 am
First, the base description of the PR version is actually the same–long hind legs, short forelegs, hairless greyish skin–the big difference seems to be the 'bipedal' idea–and that's easily explained away–surely you've seen a dog rear up on it's hind legs to get at something?.
The blood drinking is problematic. The Texas corpses were visibly not bloody–and I think their bloodlessness was remarked on. Given the fact that there were multiple corpses in several instances we can't call it an interrupted feeding(meaning the kills were made but the animal was startled off before it could feed). That would say that the animale is a) killing for no reason, or b) lends credence to it's blood drinking.
And, despite 'vampire' stories, blood drinking isn't mythical–numerous species do it.
I guess the next step is to catch one and see what it does.
Oubliette @ 11:30 am
I had thought about a dog on its hind legs as explaining the out of state sightings. I guess you can add a bit of fright and imagination to transform it into a more monster looking creature (although the dog like ones are not "cute"!) But it sounds like the Puerto Rican one is a lot bigger…maybe I just don't remember the exact descriptions.
Yes, there are blood drinking mammals but not one from the canine family, which these animals are definitely from. That's the biggest problem of all, and one hard to overcome without considering human manipulation. Though far removed from this, in Jurassic Park they completed a DNA sequence with frog DNA of a species that was able to alter its sex. Could a human be experimenting with genetics and adding parts of a blood drinking mammal? And then setting the creations lose or else they have escaped.
There are so many questions here, but at least finally we have some concrete things to go on.
Wes @ 3:55 pm
I'm not an animal expert, but … in creatures that are known to drink blood, like mosquitoes and vampire bats, they drink it from *living* creatures – for the simple reason that to get to the blood of an animal lacking a pulsing heart requires a lot more work than a simple puncture. Even those creatures, however, don't usually drain their victims of blood — and we really haven't seen any evidence that the Chupacabra does, either (other than the mythology that this animal is a "blood sucker").
Secondly, if we accept the premise that this is a predatory canine creature (I still think it's likely a hybrid of a coyote and dog that bred in Mexico and whose offspring are now spreading north – explaining the look of the creature, the DNA and the genetic abnormality, produced by cross-breeding, of being relatively hairless) than we also have a potential explanation for the way it kills.
When it kills to eat, there's not much left of its victims, and any meal remains would also be possibly attributed to feral cats, dogs, cougars … whatever. But if the relatively recent sighting of this animal stem from the fact that it is migrating to new territories that it is marking, or feeling territorial about, that would explain why it is killing, and not eating, its victims. That would be in line with canine behavior – I have a mixed breed dog named Lucy. She's very gentle, but yet very protective of her territory, ie., yard. Several times over the years, a snake, possum, mouse or bird will make the mistake of entering Lucy's territory. The result usually is a dead snake, possum, etc. As the disposer of said animals, I can attest that the way at least some canines kill to protect or mark their territory is to grab the creature (sometimes without even leaving noticeable puncture marks) and shake it until something bad happens to its internal organs. The result is in line with what the victims of the Chupacabra look like … and for the record, my Pekingese is still alive, and full of blood, so I'm pretty sure Lucy is not a Chupacabra …
jack @ 8:08 am
I guess that's why I wanted to see more about the feeding. The show kept saying that the corpses were drained of blood, but there really wasn't any follow-up. Given all the scientific testing, were the bodies tested as well?