Chupacabra

In March 1995, eight sheep were found dead in Moca, Puerto Rico. Each had three puncture wounds on the chest and appeared to be completely drained of blood. Over the following months, similar killings were reported across the island. Goats, chickens, and rabbits were found with identical wounds. A witness named Madelyne Tolentino reported seeing a creature: bipedal, about a meter tall, with large dark eyes, grey leathery skin, and a row of spines from the head down the back.

The Name

A Puerto Rican comedian, Silverio Pérez, coined the name chupacabra, “goat-sucker,” on a television program. The name stuck. By 1996, reports had spread to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Central America, and South America. The creature became the most widely reported cryptid in the Western Hemisphere.

The Two Chupacabras

There are two distinct traditions. The original Puerto Rican chupacabra is bipedal, alien-looking, and associated with exsanguinated livestock. The later North American chupacabra, reported from Texas onward, is a quadruped: hairless, dog-like, with mange. DNA analysis of carcasses from Texas and elsewhere has consistently identified these as coyotes or domestic dogs with severe sarcoptic mange, which causes hair loss and a monstrous appearance.

The Original

The Puerto Rican cases remain unexplained. No carcass of the original bipedal type has been recovered. Benjamin Radford, in Tracking the Chupacabra (2011), argued that Tolentino’s description closely matches the alien creature in the 1995 film Species, which she had recently seen. Whether the films shaped the sighting or the resemblance is coincidental is debated. The livestock deaths were real. What caused them has not been determined.