A strange looking creature has washed up on the shoreline in San Diego, a creature which has been, up until now, unidentifiable. Many people, including the discoverer of the deceased animal, have claimed it is a Chupacabra, an elusive animal that has only been sighted, but never confirmed. This article focuses on the history, description and sightings of the legendary Chupacabra, and also compares these points to that of the animal found on the San Diego beach.
Chupacabra habits and appearance
The fabled Chupacabra has been so elusive that most of the claimed sightings have varied in description, yet have never been substantially close enough to any other sighting. The traditional physical description entails an animal capable of walking on it's two hind legs, like a human, yet preferring to run on all four. It has been compared to animals such as the Australian kangaroo, an ape, and even reptiles. It's said to have wide, red eyes, and it is due to this resemblance to an alien that many people believe it originated from another planet. According to Mosnews an animal they claim to be the Chupacabra was first sighted in Russia in 2006, when it killed 32 turkeys. Reports later came from neighboring villages when 30 sheep were also killed. The Chupacabra drinks the blood of it's prey, leaving the animals virtually intact, save for puncture marks deep enough to house a human finger.
Sighting and cases
A bloodsucking alien from another planet is quite a claim to make, and this has lead to it's status as a legend. Any evidence or sighting were either insubstantial, or (in the case of corpses) was eaten before it could be fully determined whether or not it was indeed a new animal, or just another with a disease, such as the animal found in Texas in 2010, which was identified to be a coyote with a severe case of mange. However, multiple cases have pointed to an animal that walks on four legs, and resembles a coyote, save for a snout like a pig, and our San Diego animal, discovered by Josh Menard, a snowboarder from Lake Tahoe, Sierra Nevada, corresponds to this description. It has a long snout, huge canines and a hairless body, save for it's thin, white mohawk.
Chupacabras still mythical
It appears that, for now, the legendary Chupacabra remains a legend, and nothing more. Though many speculations were both made and continue to be made, Darren Naish, a science writer and paleozoologist based at the University of Southampton has confirmed the decayed corpse found at San Diego to be that of an Opossum.
Sources
- Vice.com, Behold:The San Diego Demonoid, accessed February 4th, 2012
- Theawl.com, San Diego Chupacabra proven to be not a real Chupacabra, accessed February 4th, 2012
- Howstuffworks.com, Characteristics and origins of El Chupacabre, accessed February 4th, 2012
- National Geographic, Chupacabra Science: How Evolution Made a Mythical Monster, accessed 4th February, 2012
- UPI.com, Expert: 'Chupacabra' a coyote-dog hybrid, accessed 4th February, 2012
Jake Quade - Psychology, Sociology, Human Behaviour, Philosophy. Everything you need to know to know yourself.
