Chuppies Everywhere!


There's been a spat of chupacabra captures/dead carcasses. Well, supposed chuppies.


Wikipedia: The chupacabras[1] (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃupaˈkaβɾas], from chupar "to suck" and cabra "goat", literally "goat sucker") is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. It is associated more recently with sightings of an allegedly unknown animal in Puerto Rico (where these sightings were first reported), Mexico, and the United States, especially in the latter's Latin American communities.[2] The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats.

Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile, and even being spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and The Philippines. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.

Biologists and wildlife management officials view the chupacabras as a contemporary legend.


The "traditional" Puerto Rican Chuppies were bad-ass. Described as a demon with wings, red eyes, sharp teeth, drinking blood, his description changed to a more canine-like creature here in America.


Here's a cool article about the Puerto Rican version.


So far, encounters in Texas and the Southwest with these creatures (when they're alive) have not been at all angry or threatening. Not like the reports one hears in Puerto Rico where livestock are found dead and drained of blood.



Mange in coyotes and dogs, as well as foxes are the explanation for chuppie sightings.


Mange: Tiny mites that burrowing the hair follicles of animals and resulting in hair loss. This is spread by animals. In areas where there is livestock and domestic dogs as well as wild canines like coyotes intermixing, the spread of the disease can be rampant. These animals that have been caught, especially the ones commonly found in Texas, seem to be very real animals with cases of mange. It might even be possible to backtrack and find outbreaks of mange on farms to determine where the origins of some of these creatures are. It would seem from recent reports mostly coming from Texas, that a simple check of the rates of mange in domestic pets and livestock would support the mange explanation. I find it very telling that so many are coming from Texas which says to me that this could very well be an outbreak of the mite there.

Comments

  1. Saw a show that featured history detectives doing dna search on a taxidermied chuppy a Texas woman had in her house. "Inconclusive." They myth lives on.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah. I wonder sometimes if we're mistaking manged dogs for chuppies but that chuppies actually do exist, but we took the sightings of the real thing and just ran off like a wildfire, spreading it around the US.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Most of these look like wild dogs to me! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Educational, informative and interesting!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. When my son and I watched "Troll Hunter" last night we discussed how the US needs more mythical creatures like other countries. I thought of the Thunderbird and Jersey Devil, but we also lay claim to Bigfoot and Chupacabras. Still, nothing terribly adorable. The miners in the old days had Tommyknockers, but that was a legend of Cornish decent. I can see rural people believing that anything that kills their livestock is a threat, so legends abound. I wonder in the US what kinds of legends we could come up with to explain some of our issues. Hmm... Sounds like a short story series for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sightings in Puerto Rico actually date back to the 1970s. The meme only burst onto the scene in 1995 whereupon it took on a couple new physical attributes that we now associate with the phenomena. Since the events in PR, all subsequent Chupa activity has centered around the southern/southwestern US (increasingly in non-Latino communities) where the culprit is almost without deviation a mangy canid of some type. One of these days, when I get off my lazy butt, I will end up writing up my research from living in Puerto Rico for over 3 years. I learned a lot and have a lot to share, but I have so many other projects. Tempus fugit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Time doesn't fly, Cullan, projects fly! You are getting a lot done. Yes, I would really love to read what you have to say on the subject. I think we're talking about two completely different things here, but people who have relocated to the US have brought with them the lingo to explain such a creature as a manged dog. It has muddied the waters. The original chuppie stories are very intriguing. Oh, and you having a lazy butt? har har! You are the busiest most productive person I know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Peppy says that they are all frauds!

    From milk to blood:

    http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/dortort-obit/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Barry;
    That's because Peppy is the one and only chuppie! Thanks for that link--that is an amazing find!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Poor doggies, being called names just because they look different. I'll bet the goats are the ones calling them names, which would explain the goat-related violence.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah, there are lots of dead dogs and road kill being called chubacabras. My favorite supposed chubacabra turned out to be a turtle without its shell! A guy was carrying it around in the trunk of his car for some reason. That first picture you put up is really cool!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey I was just going to remark that I read that on Justine's blog and there she is ... above me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. They should enter one of those into the worlds ugliest dog contests. It would be a shoo in to win! lol.

    ReplyDelete
  14. All the false sighting drive my poor son insane! He looks at the television with disgust and yells, "What are they thinking? That's fake! Don't they know what a Chupacabara looks like???" So frustrating. At least he found an awesome Cryptozoology book at the library the other day =)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment