What is it about Texas that drives people to think they’ve seen the legendary chupacabra? Just recently two of the creatures were spotted in the same area in northern Texas. After hitting local headlines, the sighting was considered reminiscent of another recent sighting in the area of a similar creature.
ABC’s News affiliate WFAA did a piece on the sighting in which they declare the mysterious monster was nothing more than a coyote with a combination of diseases that gave the creature its monstrous appearance. Unfortunately, this is also the explanation many are citing for this series of sightings as well. But if two coyotes are being sighted with mange in such a small distance from one another, can we really determine if it is so mundane?
As many are already aware, the name Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in the native tongue that the legend originated in. The creature is said to prey on livestock and completely exsanguinate its victims, ultimately leaving them as many cows are left after cattle mutilations. The creature is said to leave puncture wounds in the throat and then suck out the blood while the victim is still alive to allow the blood to leave more efficiently. Ultimately it’s said the chupacabra kills with blood loss.
And now David Hewitt, a man from Texas’ Hood County has come forward saying he’s killed one of the creatures. This might sound like a repeat to some who heard of a similar case earlier this year, but the names are different in this case and it has been reported by sevreral news agencies as new.
Unfortunately, it appears the results will be the same as well. Judging from the characteristics Mr. Hewitt described, they bear a striking resemblance to a coyote in the advanced stages of mange. The new chupacabra description also doesn’t hold much water when compared to more conventional depictions of the creature as a hairless bipedal creature with scales, spikes running along its spine and either fangs or a proboscis with which to drain animals of blood. The faux chupacabra being depicted often in new reports often seems like a sort of naturally occurring creature than the spiny gremlin we have become used to over the years.
In fact, this new breed of chupacabra is so common in cryptozoology news that sometimes a mundane creature finds the chupacabra name attributed to it independent of the accounts of first hand witnesses. With thankfully peaceful times where big headlines are hard to find “weird news” headlines sell. As a result, many creatures which would be difficult to identify end up as chupacabras by the time their appearance is reported. Unfortunately, this is part of the ambiguous nature of cryptid sightings. The chupacabra has earned a great deal of fame, but unlike other cryptids such as bigfoot, has remained fairly ambiguous beyond that.
Will the creature reported in Texas turn out to be more than another coyote with mange? Or will it simply be added to the list of solved mysteries?