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Aug 15, 2008 | 30
All good cryptid stories come to an end and so it goes with the chupacabra video. Although it is difficult to make a definitive identification from the tape, biologist Scott Henke of Texas A&M University-Kingsville says: "It's a dog for sure."
Since coyotes run a little more gracefully, it's likely to be a bull mastiff or pit bull, or perhaps just a mutt. "Dogs just roaming and being stray is quite a problem in southern Texas," Henke says. "The probability of it being a mixed breed dog is higher than anything else."
He notes that the original chupacabra findings—headless goats with drained blood—turned out to be the work of a Mexican cult. And the chupacabra's other hallmark—not eating the livestock it kills—is also a feral dog favorite. "Feral dogs are much more of a problem than coyotes for losing livestock like goats," he says. "Especially if the animal is killed and the throat's bit. A coyote will eat the meat too, if they're going to go to the effort to kill it. If they're just torn up, it's most likely a feral dog."
Aug 13, 2008 | 66
Traveling all the way from its point of origin in Puerto Rico, the chupacabra (literally "goat sucker") has now popped up in the Texas town of Cuero. Or it allegedly has. Even better, sheriff's deputy (in training no less) Brandon Reidel caught the supposed chupacabra on tape.
The animal appears to have a long snout and forelegs slightly shorter than the hind legs, the textbook, or rather folkloric, description of the animal that likes to attack livestock, particularly goats, and drink their blood. Short-haired (rather than hairless like the classic chupacabra) the dread beast looks like a small dog, or perhaps a coyote crossed with a small dog such as a pit bull.
Or it could just be a coyote. After all, that's what the last chupacabra sighting in Texas turned out to be: coyotes suffering from a bad case of mange. Either way, the truth is out there.
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