.jpg) An artist's rendition of the chupacabra | |
| First attested | March 1995 |
|---|---|
| Other name(s) | Chupacabras,El Chupacabra |
| Country |
|
| Region |
|
Thechupacabra orchupacabras (Spanish pronunciation:[tʃupaˈkaβɾas], literally 'goat-sucker', fromSpanish:chupa, 'sucks', andcabras, 'goats') is a legendary creature, orcryptid, in the folklore of parts of the Americas. The name comes from the animal's purported vampirism – the chupacabra is said to attack anddrink the blood of livestock, including goats.
Physical descriptions of the creature vary. InPuerto Rico and inHispanic America it is generally described as a heavy creature, reptilian and alien-like, roughly the size of a small bear, and with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail, while in theSouthwestern United States it is depicted as more dog-like.
Initial sightings and accompanying descriptions first occurred in Puerto Rico in 1995. The creature has since been reported as far north asMaine, as far south asChile, and even outside the Americas in countries like Russia and the Philippines. All of the reports are anecdotal and have been disregarded as uncorroborated or lacking evidence. Sightings in northern Mexico and theSouthern United States have been verified ascanids afflicted bymange.[1][2]
Chupacabras can be literally translated as 'goat-sucker', fromchupar ('to suck') andcabras ('goats'). It is known as bothchupacabras andchupacabra throughout the Americas, with the former being the original name,[3] and the latter aregularization. The name is attributed to Puerto Rican comedianSilverio Pérez, who coined the label in 1995 while commenting on the attacks as aSan Juanradio deejay.[4][5]
In 1975, a series of livestock killings in the small town ofMoca, Puerto Rico were attributed toel vampiro de Moca ('the vampire of Moca').[6] Initially, it was suspected that the killings were committed by aSatanic cult; later more killings were reported around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life. Each of the animals was reported to have had its body bled dry through a series of small circular incisions.
The first reported attack eventually attributed to the actual chupacabras occurred in March 1995. Eight sheep were discovered dead in Puerto Rico, each with three puncture wounds in the chest area and reportedly completely drained of blood.[7] A few months later, in August, an eyewitness named Madelyne Tolentino reported seeing the creature in the Puerto Rican town ofCanóvanas, where as many as 150 farm animals and pets were reportedly killed.[7]
Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the termchupacabras soon after the first incidents were reported in the press. Shortly after the first reported incidents in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States.[7]
In 2019 a video recorded byMundo Ovni showed the results of a supposed attack on chickens in the Seburuquillo sector ofLares, Puerto Rico.[8]
A five-year investigation byBenjamin Radford, documented in his 2011 bookTracking the Chupacabra, concluded that the description given by the original eyewitness in Puerto Rico, Madelyne Tolentino, was based on the creature Sil in the 1995 science-fiction horror filmSpecies.[1] The alien creature Sil is nearly identical to Tolentino's chupacabra eyewitness account and she had seen the movie before her report: "It was a creature that looked like the chupacabra, with spines on its back and all... The resemblance to the chupacabra was really impressive", Tolentino reported.[9] Radford revealed that Tolentino "believed that the creatures and events she saw inSpecies were happening in reality in Puerto Rico at the time", and therefore concludes that "the most important chupacabra description cannot be trusted".[1] This, Radford believes, seriously undermines the credibility of the chupacabra as a real animal.[10]
The reports of blood-sucking by the chupacabra were never confirmed by anecropsy,[1] the only way to conclude that the animal was drained of blood. Dr. David Morales, a Puerto Rican veterinarian with the Department of Agriculture, analyzed 300 reported victims of the chupacabra and found that they had not been bled dry.[1]
Radford divided the chupacabra reports into two categories: the reports fromPuerto Rico andLatin America, where animals were attacked and it is supposed their blood was extracted; and the reports in the United States of mammals, mostly dogs andcoyotes with mange, that people call "chupacabra" due to their unusual appearance.[11]
In 2010,University of Michigan biologist Barry O'Connor concluded that all the chupacabra reports in the United States were simply coyotes infected with the parasiteSarcoptes scabiei, whose symptoms would explain most of the features of the chupacabra: they would be left with little fur, thickened skin, and a rank odor. O'Connor theorized that the attacks on goats occurred "because these animals are greatly weakened, [so] they're going to have a hard time hunting. So they may be forced into attacking livestock because it's easier than running down a rabbit or a deer."[12][1] Both dogs and coyotes can kill and not consume the prey, either because they are inexperienced, or due to injury or difficulty in killing the prey.[1][13] The prey can survive the attack and die afterwards frominternal bleeding orcirculatory shock.[1][13] The presence of two holes in the neck, corresponding with thecanine teeth, are to be expected since this is the only way that most landcarnivores have to catch their prey.[1] There are reports of strayMexican hairless dogs being mistaken for chupacabras.[14]
.jpg)
The most common description of the chupacabra is that of areptile-like creature, said to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back.[15] It is said to be approximately 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a fashion similar to that of akangaroo.[16] This description was the chief one given to the few Puerto Rican reports in 1995 that claimed to have sighted the creature, with similar reports in parts of Chile and Argentina following.[1]
Another common description of the chupacabra is of a strange breed of wild dog. This form is mostly hairless and has a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. This description started to appear in the early 2000s from reports trailing north from theYucatán Peninsula, northernMexico, and then into theUnited States; becoming the predominant description since.[1] Unlike conventional predators, the chupacabra is said to drain all of the animal's blood (and sometimes organs) usually through three holes in the shape of a downwards-pointing triangle, but sometimes through only one or two holes.[17]
The chupacabra panic first started in late 1995,Puerto Rico: farmers were mass reporting the mysterious killings of various livestock. In these reports, the farmers recalled two puncture wounds on the animal carcasses.[1] Chupacabra killings were soon associated with a seemingly untouched animal carcass other than puncture wounds which were said to be used to suck the blood out of the victim. Reports of such killings began to spread around and eventually out of the country, reaching areas such asMexico,Brazil,Chile, and the Southern area of theUnited States.
Most notably, these areas experience frequent, and extreme dry seasons; in the cases of thePuerto Rican reports of 1995 and theMexican reports of 1996, both countries were currently experiencing or dealing with the aftermath of severedroughts. Investigations carried out in both countries at this time noted a certain dramatic violence in these killings.[18] These environmental conditions could provide a simple explanation for thelivestock killings: wildpredators losing their usualprey to thedrought, therefore being forced to hunt thelivestock of farmers for sustenance. Thus, the same theory can be applied to many of the other 'chupacabra' attacks: that the dryweather had created a more competitive environment for nativepredators, leading them to prey onlivestock to survive. Such an idea can also explain the increased violence in the killings; hungry and desperatepredators are driven to huntlivestock to avoid starvation, causing an increase in both the number oflivestock killings, and the viciousness of each one.
Evidence of such is provided in page 179 ofBenjamin Radford's book,Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore.Radford's chart highlights ten significant reports of chupacabra attacks, seven of which had a carcass recovered and examined; theseautopsies concluded the causes of death as various animal attacks, as displayed though the animal DNA found on the carcasses.[1]Radford provides further evidence in pages 161-162 of his book, displaying animals who are proven to have fallen victim to regularcoyote attacks; thus, explaining that it is not unusual for an animal carcass to be left uneaten while only displaying puncture wounds and/or minimal signs of attack.[1]
The plausibility of the chupacabra's existence is also discredited by the varying descriptions of the creature. Depending on the reported sighting, the creature is described with thick skin or fur, wings or no wings, a long tail or no tail, isbat-like,dog-like, or evenalien-like.[1] Evidently, the chupacabra has a wide variety of descriptions; to the point where it is hard to believe that all the sightings are of the same creature. A very likely explanation for this phenomenon is that individuals who had heard of the newly popular chupacabra had the creature's name fresh in their mind before they happened to see a strange looking animal. They then resort to make sense of their encounter by labelling it as the recently 'discovered' monster, instead of a more realistic explanation. For example, some scientists hypothesize that what many believe to be a chupacabra is a wild or domesticdog affected bymange, a disease causing a thick buildup of skin and hair loss.[19]
The "Ozark Howler", a large bear-like animal, is the subject of a similar legend.[20]
ThePeuchens of Chile also share similarities in their supposed habits, but instead of being dog-like they are described as winged snakes. This legend may have originated from thevampire bat, an animalendemic to the region.[21]
In the Philippines theSigbin shares many of the chupacabra's descriptions.
In 2018 there were reports of suspected chupacabras inManipur, India. Many domestic animals and poultry were killed in a manner similar to other chupacabra attacks, and several people reported that they had seen creatures. Forensic experts opined that street dogs were responsible for mass killing of domestic animals and poultry after studying the remnants of a corpse.[22]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Chupacabra" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Taxa from Wikispecies