An unknown creature attacked eight sheep on a farm in Puerto Rico.
The Chupacabra is a creature that supposedly exists in North and South America, with reported sightings from Chile to Maine. Its name, Chupacabra, comes from a combination of the Spanish word chupar, which means to suck, and goat, which means goat. The creature has earned this ferocious title from reports that it sucks the blood of animals such as goats and leaves small wounds on its victims.
DNA from a putative chupacabra turned out to be a coyote with mange.
The chupacabra first made headlines in 1995, when reports surfaced that an unknown creature had attacked eight sheep on a farm in Puerto Rico and drained their blood. Shortly thereafter, reports of similar attacks on animals began to emerge in the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Panama, Brazil, Peru, and other countries.
Unlike other popular cryptids like Mothman and Bigfoot, the Chupacabra seems to have the most varied physical descriptions. Vampire cryptozoology, chupacabras, are described as reptilian creatures that are around 0.9 to 1.2 m tall and have spines that emerge from the spine to the tail. The Chupacabra has also been reported to hiss, jump a lot, and have large glowing red eyes. Another common description of the Chupacabra portrays it as more of a hairless canine than a reptile. In 2004, DNA results from a suspected Chupacabra carcass in Texas supported this theory, as the results revealed that it was a coyote with mange.
The chupacabra is said to attack cattle.
2006 was a busy year for the Chupacabra: with eyewitness reports claiming it had first appeared in Maine and even Central Russia. After a series of dog attacks were reported in Turner, Maine, a roadside corpse resembling a canine creature was discovered and found to be the culprit. However, scavengers cleaned up the carcass before it could be analyzed. In central Russia that same year, a wave of cattle rustling occurred in 32 turkeys and 30 sheep, all found to be bled.
Theories about the genetic makeup and origin of the chupacabra vary. Some speculate that it is an undiscovered animal species, possibly related to canines, felines, reptiles, or a combination thereof. Others theorize that it is a dinosaur that somehow survived the prehistoric period. Perhaps the most eccentric theory is that it is some kind of extraterrestrial pet that survived a UFO crash near Puerto Rico and has since multiplied.