Chupacabra - Reported Sightings

Reported Sightings

In July 2004, a rancher near San Antonio, Texas, killed a hairless dog-like creature, which was attacking his livestock. This animal, initially given the name the Elmendorf Beast, was later determined by DNA assay conducted at University of California, Davis to be a coyote with demodectic or sarcoptic mange. In October 2004, two more carcasses were found in the same area. Biologists in Texas examined samples from the two carcasses and determined they were also coyotes suffering from very severe cases of mange. In Coleman, Texas, a farmer named Reggie Lagow caught an animal in a trap he set up after the deaths of a number of his chickens and turkeys. The animal was described as resembling a mix of hairless dog, rat, and kangaroo. Lagow provided the animal to Texas Parks and Wildlife officials for identification, but Lagow reported in a September 17, 2006 phone interview with John Adolfi, founder of the Lost World Museum, that the "critter was caught on a Tuesday and thrown out in Thursday's trash."

In April 2006, MosNews reported that the chupacabras was spotted in Russia for the first time. Reports from Central Russia beginning in March 2005 tell of a beast that kills animals and sucks out their blood. 32 turkeys were killed and drained overnight. Reports later came from neighboring villages when 30 sheep were killed and had their blood drained. Finally, eyewitnesses were able to describe the chupacabras. In May 2006, experts were determined to track the animal down. According to Russian paranormal researcher Vadim Chernobrov, the territory allegedly frequented by chupakabras lies in the Kharkov region of Ukraine and neighboring regions of Russia, but also in parts of Belorus and Poland. Recently the reports appeared of chupakabra-like attacks in the Moscow region of Russia with dozens of birds and animals found bloodless, with strange incisions. At least twice the mysterious kangaroo-like creature ("with a crocodile head") attacked humans, causing no serious damage, though. According to Chernobrov,the two extraordinary things about chupakabra's ways are - the thing leaves a 'vanishing' line of footprints, looking as if it takes off as a bird, and also it tends occasionally to assort its victim's bodies 'aesthetically', often by colour and size, or build pyramids with killed bodies.

In mid-August 2006, Michelle O'Donnell of Turner, Maine, described an "evil looking" rodent-like animal with fangs that had been found dead alongside a road. The animal was apparently struck by a car, and was unidentifiable. Photographs were taken and witness reports seem to be in relative agreement that the creature was canine in appearance, but in widely published photos seemed unlike any dog or wolf in the area. Photos from other angles seem to show a chow- or akita-mixed breed dog. It was reported that "the carcass was picked clean by vultures before experts could examine it". For years, residents of Maine have reported a mysterious creature and a string of dog maulings.

In May 2007, a series of reports on national Colombia news reported more than 300 dead sheep in the region of Boyaca, and the capture of a possible specimen to be analyzed by zoologists at the National University of Colombia.

In August 2007, Phylis Canion found three animals in Cuero, Texas. She and her neighbors reported to have discovered three strange animal carcasses outside Canion's property. She took photographs of the carcasses and preserved the head of one in her freezer before turning it over for DNA analysis. Canion reported that nearly 30 chickens on her farm had been exsanguinated over a period of years, a factor which led her to connect the carcasses with the chupacabras legend. State Mammologist John Young estimated that the animal in Canion's pictures was a Gray Fox suffering from an extreme case of mange. In November 2007, biology researchers at Texas State University–San Marcos determined from DNA samples that the suspicious animal was a coyote. The coyote, however, had grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin and large fanged teeth, which caused it to appear different from a normal coyote. Additional skin samples were taken to attempt to determine the cause of the hair loss.

On January 11, 2008, a sighting was reported at the province of Capiz in the Philippines. Some of the residents from the barangay believed that it was the chupacabras that killed eight chickens. The owner of the chickens saw a dog-like animal attacking his chickens.

On August 8, 2008, a DeWitt County deputy, Brandon Riedel, filmed an unidentifiable animal along back roads near Cuero, Texas on his dashboard camera. The animal was about the size of a coyote but was hairless with a long snout, short front legs and long back legs. However, Reiter's boss, Sheriff Jode Zavesky, believes it may be the same species of coyote identified by Texas State University–San Marcos researchers in November 2007. The video footage was shown on an April 2011 episode of the Syfy television series Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files where an investigative team tried to recreate the dashboard video footage using a miniature horse and a Mexican Hairless Dog (both of which were bred locally). Neither test animal matched the creature in the video. The team had also tested a DNA sample taken from an alleged carcass of one of the creatures found by a local rancher which was later identified as being a hybrid wolf/coyote.

In September 2009, CNN aired a report showing closeup video footage of an unidentified dead animal. The same CNN report stated that locals have begun speculating the possibility that this might be a chupacabras. A Blanco, Texas, taxidermist reported that he received the body from a former student whose cousin had discovered the animal in his barn, where it had succumbed to poison left out for rodents. The taxidermist expressed his belief that this is a genetically mutated coyote.

On September 18, 2009, taxidermist Jerry Ayer sold the Blanco Texas Chupacabra to the Lost World Museum. The museum, as reported in the Syracuse Post Standard on 9/26/09, is placing the creature on display as they work with an unnamed university to have the remains tested.

In July 2010, there were reports of chupacabras being shot dead by animal control officers in Hood County, Texas. A second creature was also reportedly spotted and killed several miles away. However, an officer of Hood County animal control said Texas A&M University scientists conducted tests and identified the corpse as a "coyote-dog hybrid" with signs of mange and internal parasites. The second reported chupacabra, shot July 9 about 8 miles south of Cresson, was eaten by vultures before it could be taken for testing.

On December 18, 2010, in Nelson County, Kentucky, Mark Cothren shot and killed an animal that he could not recognize and feared. Many pictures of the Chupacabra were taken and the story was well documented by various news organizations. Cothren described the creature as having large ears, whiskers, a long tail, and about the size of a house cat. Cothren says he spoke with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and handed over the preserved animal for further analysis.

Another sighting was on July 4, 2011. Jack (Jeff) Crabtree, of Lake Jackson, Texas, reported seeing a chupacabra in his back yard. At first, Crabtree stood firmly on his original theory of the chupacabra, but after the local newspaper and several other media reporters wrote his story on July 11, he quickly backed down, agreeing with wildlife experts that it was most likely a coyote with mange. "It was a spoof or a practical joke," Crabtree said. "...I really didn't believe it." His story appeared on CNN, as well as MSNBC. On July 15, 2011, local authorities caught what Crabtree saw. Experts confirmed that the animal was definitely a coyote with mange.