The chupacabra is believed to be a mythical creature, said to wander the American southwest and northern Mexico. Now, a couple in south Texas claims they have captured one of the animals alive.
Jackie Stock of Ratcliffe, Texas told television station KAVU that her husband captured a chupacabra alive on the night of 30 March. The capture was made in a heavily-forested area of Ratcliffe, Texas, says Stock. She described what happened after her husband captured the animal.
"He called me to come and look, and I said 'Bubba that looks like a baby chupacabra,'" Stock said.
Chupacabra is a name derived from the words chupar, meaning "to suck" and cabra, or "goat." The name literally means "goat sucker." The creature is blamed for attacking livestock, draining farm animals like sheep and cows of their blood.
The legendary species is usually described as being three to four feet long and hairless. Some reports say the creatures have spines running down the center of their backs. A few descriptions of chupacabra say the animals have long fangs, which they sink into the flesh of their prey.
The first of these attacks was said to take place in 1995, in Puerto Rico. Sheep and other farm animals were found dead on the ground, drained of their blood, initial report says. Satanic cults were blamed for many of the killings at first. Soon, controversy started brewing, as a veterinarian who examined 300 of the animals stated they were not drained of blood.
"The animal in the cage as best I can tell from the view is some sort of a small canine," Brent Ortego, Wildlife Diversity Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, told the press.
The captured animal may suffer from mange, which could have caused the animal to lose its hair, giving the creature its strange appearance.
Reports of chupacabras surface from time to time. Suspect animals are usually determined to be dogs, coyotes or raccoons.
Carl Sagan was fond of saying that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The chance of this animal being an unknown species is possible.
New types of animals are found on a fairly regular basis. But, it will take a lot of research to show whether or not members of the same species of this creature could be responsible for the livestock deaths.
Until wildlife officials are able to determine exactly what species the captured animal is a member of, it is being cared for by the Stocks. The couple is feeding the strange animal cat food and corn.
