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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 1, 2008 | 48
Nothing like a bizarre-looking sea "monster" to draw crowds to a tony resort town. The blogosphere has been abuzz since Gawker.com early this week featured a story and photo of a bulky hairless corpse with sharp teeth and a snout that reportedly washed up in Montauk on the eastern tip of Long Island, N.Y. Another Big Foot or Loch Ness Monster, perhaps?
The report of the cryptid was picked up by Fox News, CNN and other TV nets, magazines and newspapers as far away as London hungry for a hot story to spice up the summer news doldrums.
"We were looking for a place to sit when we saw some people looking at something," Jenna Hewitt, 26, told Newsday. "We were kind of amazed, shocked and amazed." Hewitt was among a bunch of locals who insist they saw the odd-looking corpse. Most of those weighing in on the creature's identity subscribed to the theory that it was a dog. (A pit bull was the prevailing favorite.)
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