The Chupacabras: Which One?
Posted by: Nick Redfern on January 15th, 2014
Las Caras de la Chupacabra by kjmarch
“As someone who has now been to Puerto Rico on many occasions, I am often asked a question that goes something like this: How did the Chupacabras manage to make its way from Puerto Rico – an island – to the United States, and specifically to the heart of Texas? Well, the fact is that it didn’t. Not at all. In the slightest.
“Despite what certain people in the media, eyewitnesses, and elements of the paranormal research community have said to the contrary, the only connection between the original beast of Puerto Rico and the skinny, hairless dog-beasts of Texas is the name they share. And that’s it.”
That – above – is how my latest Mysterious Universe article begins on the Puerto Rican Chupacabras vs. the Texan one…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Ok, I live in eastern Pa. This morning 12/15 while returning from an errand, the car in front of me hit and killed a coywolf. They have been in my area for a while now so not too surprising. A young male maybe 25 pounds. The interesting thing about it was the state of mange that was apparent in the look and fur loss. In another couple of months, this animal would easily become unrecognizable to the average viewer and be reported as a…chupacabras? I took images of this animal but I don’t know how to post an image on Cryptomundo otherwise I would do so.
Is it true that the term was coined by a stand-up comedian?
Yes, that is true. Comedian Silverio Perez is attributed with inventing the name after the rash of sightings during 1995 in Puerto Rico. I sculpted a model of one for an alien lifeforms collection in 1997.
cryptokellie: Seeing as how there have been no wolves in PA anywhere for at least a hundred years, the breeding part is occurring somewhere else, a considerable distance away. I believe Mexican Wolves are to found in south Texas, southern NM, maybe Arizona too. That’s a long way from PA. What do you think is going on?
Goodfoot, you are exactly right. The eastern coyote or coywolf has been shown by DNA studies to be a coyote/wolf hybrid. As the north western coyotes moved east to recover the areas that they once inhabited, they were interbreeding with wolves along the way as they moved through wolf territories. The coywolf is larger and more aggressive than the western coyote and will readily hunt in parks and open areas right along side housing developments and other suburban areas. These areas are bountiful in road-kill, especially deer so I think that the very opportunistic coywolves are taking full advantage of what humans are offering, however unwittingly, in the way of traffic casualties and unattended domestic pets of the right size. The animal that I saw killed this morning was less than 1/4 mile from my house and I have seen them paroling the edges of the woods when walking my dogs, being golden retrievers are big enough not too be prey items. I also think that some misguided people are feeding them too which is a very bad idea. As I noted earlier, the most interesting thing about this dog was the fact that he was experiencing an advanced stage of mange and if had survived, would have lost his entire coat.
The underlying skin had a wrinkled surface and was slightly blue-gray in color, I believe that this animal was destined to be seen as an “unknown animal” in this area, had he not been struck by an SUV.
Thank you Nick. That has bugged me. Obviously not the same cryptid. The Puerto Rico critter gives me the heeby-jeebies. Now, I am more interested in the Puerto Rico version–the hairless hybrid running amok just doesn’t get me all excited.
Good call on the mange too.