cryptozoology
noun
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Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience & subculture which aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot, the Chupacabra, or the Loch Ness Monster. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as “cryptids”, a term coined by the subculture.
Hello, spooky babies, and welcome back to Spooky Saturday. We’re not just dealing with any Spooky Saturday today, though. Today is the very first Spooky Saturday: Cryptid Edition.
There are a lot of interesting cryptids out there. While I have no intentions of covering every cryptid ever, I have some personal favorites so I’ve decided to do a few cryptid editions of Spooky Saturday to talk about some of my favorite possibly mythical, possibly real and we just can’t prove it yet (*wink, wink*) creatures. I’m not sure how many Cryptid Editions we’ll have, but I can think of a handful of creatures I’d love to talk about! Let me know in the comments if there are any cryptids you’re particularly interested in that you’d like to see a Spooky Saturday post about!
Today, however we are talking about what is possibly my all-time favorite cryptid: the chupacabra.
The chupacabra has long been one of my favorite cryptids, and just generally one of my favorite things to talk about, and I can’t even really pinpoint exactly why. Is it because the name is so fun to say? Is it because something about the chupacabra amuses the heck out of me? I have no idea, but I find myself joking about chupacabras all the time, or saying that I hope I run into one. Whenever I hear a weird animal noise outside or something is rustling around in the bushes, you can bet I’ll be there with a joke about how it’s a chupacabra.
So what exactly is a chupacabra? Well, the name chupacabra is actually Spanish, and it’s literal—very literal—translation is “goat sucker.”
That’s right, goat sucker.
That’s not just a terrible insult you’d come up with on the fly w
hen you’re arguing with someone and can’t think of anything worse to call them. The chupacabra, AKA goat sucker, was named this because it is most likely and commonly reported to attack livestock—like goats—and it supposedly sucks all the blood out of their bodies, leaving behind nothing but tiny little puncture wounds.
Freaky, right?
Chupacabras are generally described in one of two ways, or as some sort of hybrid of the two descriptions. Some people describe them as very scaly, reptilian-like creatures, while others describe them more as dog-like creatures. Most descriptions, however, seem to blend traits of the two.
They’re usually somewhere between the size of a medium to large dog or a small bear, with scaly, rough, or leathery skin which is usually described as grayish or greenish. They are often reported to have a row of spikes or quills of some sort, kind of like a porcupine, which run down their spine from neck to tail, or at least as having a very pronounced spinal ridge, which suggests the illusion of spikes. While the spiky version of the chupacabra is exponentially more terrifying (as you can see from the pictures here), the version with the very pronounced spinal ridge seems to be more common. And when people are in a panic over seeing the creature, I can see how this would get exaggerated into a “row of spikes” or quills. Chupacabras also have unusually pronounced eye sockets and large eyes (which some people say are red), as well as generally terrifying fangs and claws (because of course they do).
So where exactly are these spiky spined, big-eyed, scaly-skinned little suckers (ha!) running around?
Well, the first reported sightings of the chupacabra were in Puerto Rico in 1995. (That’s right, y’all, just like so many amazing things, this originated in the 90s, joining the ranks of scrunchies, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and The Backstreet Boys.) In March of that year, eight sheep were discovered dead with nothing but three small puncture wounds in their chests, and they had all been completely drained of blood. Then in August of that same year, it was reported that nearly 150 farm animals and pets turned up dead—again totally drained of blood. This time, though, one resident claimed she saw the creature that had attacked the animals, and described the chupacabra. She became the first and perhaps most noteworthy eyewitness to the creature’s existence.
It turns out, however, that this actually wasn’t the first time a bunch of animals had been killed and drained of blood in Puerto Rico. About 20 years before the aforementioned event, in 1975, there was a similar incident in Moca, Puerto Rico. At this time, residents believed that the blood drainings were either the work of some sort of Satanic cult—or a vampire.
So, ya know. Both totally reasonable assumptions.
The event actually ended up with the residents coining the suspected culprit El Vampiro de Moca—or, for those of you who really need a translation on that one, the Vampire of Moca.
But years later, when the supposed chupacabra attacks began not far from the area of El Vampiro de Moca, people began to wonder. Could the first round of killings also have been the work of this sneaky, mysterious animal?
Ever since the first report in Puerto Rico, there have been hundreds of reports of similar animal deaths where the livestock end up with all their blood drained in places like the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. While the chupacabra seems to be more of a Central America and Southwestern U.S. cryptid, with most of the reported sightings in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, there have also supposedly been a few sightings in Florida, Oregon, Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, and even as far north as Maine.
The chupacabra has long been a popular topic in the cryptid community, but it had a resurgence in popularity around 2008 when two police officers in Dewitt County, Texas (located about halfway between San Antonio, TX and Corpus Christi, TX) brought it back to the mainstream media with a 40 second clip. Sergeant Ellie Carter and her partner, Corporal Brandon Reidel, released a dashcam video from their police cruiser where they were following a creature that they claimed was the infamous chupacabra.
If you want to check out the video for yourself, click this link and give it a watch. It’s pretty short, and worth a watch if only for Sergeant Ellie Carter’s commentary in her Texas twang.
The dash cam footage was picked up by several news stations and circulated as part of their broadcasts, bringing renewed interest to this particular cryptid. The footage—and one of the officers who recorded it—were then featured in an episode of Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, in which the cast tried to prove that the footage may have been faked or discover alternative explanations for the goatsucker sighting.
Admittedly, this footage was also what renewed my own interest in the chupacabra. While I always thought it was a cool creature to read about, I loved seeing everyone getting excited over that dashcam video and wondering just what the heck we could be looking at. When I first viewed it, I thought it was just some sort of mangy, skinny dog running along the road, but when it turned to the side and I got a look at that snout, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.
Chupacabras continue to be pretty popular, with people claiming to see them on the road, chase them away from their livestock, and some people even claiming to have caught and killed a chupacabra. The chupacabra is even featured in the popular video game Red Dead Redemption.
So, what the hell am I looking at? What exactly are these mysterious creatures?
Well, of course, since it’s a cryptid, no one knows for sure if it’s real. A lot of people believe that the numerous chupacabra sightings could actually just be malnourished or deformed coyotes, or deformed or sickly Mexican hairless dogs. Some believe it’s another species of wild dog or wild dog/reptile hybrid that we just haven’t discovered yet. After all, the basis of cryptozoology is just that we haven’t confirmed the existence of these animals. It isn’t too far-fetched to think that there are creatures out there we haven’t found yet.
Another pretty wild theory about the chupacabras is that they are actually alien creatures of some sort, possibly pets or descendants of pets accidentally left behind by “the grays”, or aliens which visited Earth at some point. This theory most likely stems from the fact that they are grayish creatures, from the reptilian texture of their skin, and from their reportedly large eyes, all of which bring to mind the most popular way of depicting aliens.
Still others say this is all nonsense and that the chupacabra doesn’t exist at all. Apparently, the livestock being drained of blood was never actually confirmed by necropsies, and there could be other illnesses or things that happen during the death of an animal which might create the look of being bloodless. I’m certainly no veterinary expert, but there are possible explanations.
In addition to the lack of corroboration on the blood drainage point, there has also been speculation that the first person to have reported seeing a chupacabra lifted her description of the creatures from a popular sci-fi movie called Species. In that case, could it have been that the power of suggestion and widespread panic caused people to believe that this was what they were seeing, when it was actually a more common predator?
Stranger things have happened.
Personally, I’m taking the Occam’s Razor route on this one: I think the chupacabra sightings are probably just malnourished or deformed coyotes or Mexican hairless dogs. Because let’s be serious—as cute as dogs are when they’re our cuddly, loyal pets, there are some weird-looking breeds of wild dogs out there. And I could see how a Mexican hairless dog or even a sick coyote could take on some of the supposed traits of the chupacabra.
But don’t get me wrong—if cryptozoologists ever prove that the chupacabra is real, I will be extremely excited, and I will definitely want to see one of these freaky creatures for myself. And despite the fact that I believe we’re most likely seeing deformed wild dogs of some sort, the idea of the chupacabra is still really amusing to me, and it’s still one of my favorites. And I will not stop referencing it anytime soon.
So, what do you all think? Is the chupacabra real? Is it some sort of bloodsucking cryptid or creepy animal we haven’t discovered yet? Or are people just seeing super skinny coyotes and not realizing what they’re looking at? Have you ever seen the chupacabra? (Please say yes.) Let me know in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3