Chupacabras = Giant Bat?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 18th, 2007
Nick Redfern has posted an interesting Puerto Rican report from 1967 of what the witness believed to be a giant bat.
Nick speculates that this could be the culprit responsible for the Chupacabras reports from Puerto Rico.
Here is an excerpt from Nick’s post on UFOmystic.
But yesterday’s email suggested yet another avenue of investigation worth exploring. According to the story, in the summer of 1967, a strange beast was observed late one evening “struggling on the ground” on farmland in the Moca area of the island.
The beast appeared injured and the farmer, terrified that it was something demonic, fled the scene to the safety of his home. The next day, the creature was gone. Several years later, however, he confided in his son the details. And it’s the son’s story – via an intermediary – that has now surfaced.
The son does not hold to the “demonic” angle, however: he believes that what his father had seen was some form of giant bat – and he bases this on the description of the creature having “a face like a little monkey – but much bigger,” a dark colored body, and distinctly bat-like wings. Now we are not talking about something the size of a large bird of prey here. No: the witness told his son that the animal appeared to be “near human in size.”
Now, of course, some will merely scoff at this report and relegate it to misidentification, legend, or the rumor-mill. However, reports of giant bats are surprisingly common. Since this is more akin to the field of cryptozoology, I won’t go into reams of detail. But several such cases are worth mentioning, at least.
Cameroon has the Olitiau – an immense bat-like beast, with large wings, a monkey-like face, and black fur. A similar creature is said to exist on Madagascar: the Fangalabolo. From Java, come reports of the Ahool: a giant bat with a 12-foot wingspan. The Guiafairo (whose name translates to “The fear that flies by night”) of Senegal falls into the same category; while the mythology of Indonesia tells of the Orang-Bati, once again a large bat-like entity, that lurks within an extinct volcano on the island and abducts children.
Of course, many of these reports (and particularly the story of the Orang-Bati) are the stuff of legend. But, behind many legends, there is often a semblance of truth. Is it possible that the Chupacabras of Puerto Rico is not an alien entity, a straightforward superstition, or the work of U.S. psychological warfare planners; but may indeed be some form of very large bat?
Click here to read the post in its entirety on UFOmystic.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Anything is possible, and this idea is probably more probable. The largest bats known to exist belong to the genus Pteropus, if I recall correctly. A glance at wikipedia (-grain of salt-) tells us that “The wingspan of the species Pteropus giganteus can measure 180 centimeters (6 feet) across, although it only weighs up to 1.5 kilograms (53 ounces). This makes Pteropus smaller than the largest birds or extinct pterosaurs.”
So even the largest bat known, is still smaller than human-sized organisms. And their faces are much more dog-like, hence the name “Flying Foxes.”
This thing is really strange. Forget the sightings of the “so called chupacabra”. First off, what kind of animal leaves their kill to rot having not eaten it all, the meat is left and specific organs are removed with precision or blood drained? None is the answer. So any legitimate zoological conclusion is ridiculous. I mean, sure the blood drained from small holes, that’s an easily identifiable zoological piece of evidence, a vampire bat possibly a larger unknown species. But how much blood was consumed, a quart, a pint or an entire goat’s worth from one exit point? Kinda rules out the bat theory, so what else could it be? Bats don’t get large enough to consume an entire goat’s plasma in one sitting, nevermind the fact that they aren’t capable of removing organs with surgical precision. So, let’s get down there and find the creature with the transfusion kit and surgical bag and it’ll be the one responsible.
Once again, this is an incorrect linking of the Chupacabras reports – which do not in their precise state ever talk about anything have wings, but, instead about bipedal cryptids.
I don’t really see any resemblance to giant bats in the reports that I have read about chupacabras, but I have no problem at all believing in the existence of giant bats.
If a furry animal the size of a pterosaur could exist – and we know that they did – then a human-sized or near human-sized bat can exist.
After all, no less than Ivan T. Sanderson said, in Investigating the Unexplained, that when he once had an encounter with an animal that locals called the Ahool, he felt that he had “just seen the grandaddy of all bats”.
There’s plenty of fruit in tropical regions, and plenty of huge tall trres and cover to hide giant bats. And who says they all have to eat fruit? There could very well be undiscovered species that eat monkeys and other small animals or even carrion.
wenonahplace, you ask, “what kind of animal leaves their kill to rot having not eaten it all”, and I agree, it’s rather odd, but there is a slight precedence for this sort of behaviour in the likes of the domestic cat, though their behaviour is slightly more explicable in that they’ve evolved from predators but’ve been mutated into something that can dispense with hunting as an absolute necessity if they’re to eat, thanks to human populations providing them with more ready sources of meals.
This man-bat dude sure gets around. Of course it could be the explanation-de-jour – a BIG OWL.
Sounds like those gravediggers from the hills.
Hello everybody. I’m from Puerto Rico and I find very interesting that these reports are still around. The creature was named ” The Moca Vampire” o “El Vampiro de Moca” in spanish. Witnesses of the creature described it as a man-bat of some sort. Most of the sighting were during the 70’s ( when I was a small kid) and at that time there were a lot of things going on at PR. UFO sightings, Hominids appearing out of nowhere, Bigfoot type creatures roaming the countryside freely, etc. Even today, sightings still happen from time to time in different parts PR. Not only Moca, but El Yunque rainforest and other areas. There have been sightings of a Bigfoot type creature at the rainforest and cover-up from government agencies, well the usual stuff at this situations.
From what I have seen of chupacabras reports, there has not been any inclination for the witnesses to think they saw something that could resemble a giant bat. This one report could very well be that, but I don’t think there is any reason at this point to suspect that chupacabras are giant bats. The behavior that is reported from these things such as draining such copious amounts of blood, leaping about rather than flying and such, as well as their reported appearance does not lend itself to this explanation in my opinion. That being said, I do feel that the idea of giant bats out there are not far fetched. It is physically within the realm of possibility. A lot of cryptids may be some sort of bat and I have always thought that the even the ropen may be some sort of large bat. Giant bats may be out there, but from what I have seen, they are a different entity from whatever the chupacabras is.
Interestingly the father was afraid that it was something demonic. That’s a very telling description. When a creature is described that way you can bet it gets bigger with the telling and, of course, by implication is evil.
Also it was late evening. In the dark everything unfamiliar seems scarier and bigger. If you reduce the creature to about half the size, you still have an unknown bat (or possibly a species of owl or nightbird?) that is respectable in size but not necessarily out of the realm of possiblility.
cotto1972,
I have posted an excerpt of Scott Corrales’ investigation of the Moca Vampire here on Cryptomundo.
The comment about domestic cats kinda feeds into the theory that Chupacabras are escaped alien pets, but seriously…
If the biggest known bat can have a wingspan of 6 feet, well, how is that not “Man-sized”, at least in general terms? Sure, the proportions would be off, but the overall size of 6 feet is about the same. Perhaps we have a difference of definition here between the father and the imaginations of those reading his account?
Another thought is that if the Chupacabras is a giant bat, it would have to fold its wings to move effectively on the ground. A brief encounter could easily be too brief to notice this feature, and I believe at least some reports have mentioned flaps of skin between the arms and legs (Folded wings?). Not saying that this is what it must be (I rather like the aquatic hominid theory, myself), but it’s an interesting avenue to pursue.
I believe that the giant bats are not the same as the chupacabra sightings, but they probably both suck blood.