Suining China Village Claims Chupacabra Captured

Yet the latest development in the unfolding mystery of the legendary chupacabra sees Chinese officials scratching their heads over a mysterious creature that was captured in a remote village in Suining, Sichuan Province late last month.  Initial reports indicate that the creature was captured after it was discovered capturing and consuming livestock.  Though the creature was not targeting goats, as its traditional western counterpart, but rather chickens.

The creature resembles descriptions of the legendary monster of thought supernatural origin.  It has long hind legs, spotted wrinkled skin, and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.  Caretakers at the veterinary office near Suining say that, to their horror, the creature consumes both meat and vegetation voraciously and has an insatiable appetite for both.  Villagers have said it resembles a mixture between a large rat and a kangaroo with massive claws.  And the creature is certainly large enough to give those handling it reason to pause.  It is just under two feet long without taking into consideration its almost 11 inch long tail.

The creature was first discovered after villager Ke Suying suspected something had gone afowl in his chicken coop after hearing chickens in distress.  Armed with his wits and a flashlight, Suying discovered the creature tearing into one of his chickens for only a moment before turning its shining eyes to look up at him and scurry into a corner.  The creature was captured alive and taken to a veterinary hospital where it has been studied ever since the incident on the 24thof March.

There have been a number of incidents where authorities have captured a rare or mutated creature and then considered it a live example of the Chupacabra.  Unfortunately, the creature is often compared to the chupacabra prematurely.  Actual sightings of the legendary goat sucker declare that it does not actually eat the flesh of its victims, but rather only drink its blood.  With recent incidents of cattle mutilations on the annual rise a lot of farmers are demanding answers for their dying livestock.  But this creature does not look to me to be a chupacabra, but rather something else.

If you remember, on March 09 of this year we brought you a story about a similar incident in Dewitt County Texas, where a raccoon was captured and thought similarly to be the chupacabra.  It did, however, turn out to be nothing more than a creature of mundane explanation whose appearance had been drastically altered by disease.

Mange is a disease which results in furred creatures losing their hair.  It's also known as acariasis.  In its most advanced forms it removes all fur from the body.  So could the creature captured in China be a similar species known as Nyctereutes procyonoides, or the "raccoon dog" in an advanced state of acariasis?  One theory is that the creature could have been set loose into the wild from a fur farm either due to its lack of usefulness and high maintenance or in order to prevent believed contamination of other animals.