Jack Crabtree, a retired wildlife biologist from Lake Jackson, Texas, reportedly spotted the mythical chupacabra near his home.
On July 4, Crabtree and his wife saw the hairless animal around a creek in the back of their house, reported ABC News. Crabtree told ABC News, “It was immediately clear to me it was a coyote with a severe case of mange. It was obviously sick.”
Crabtree sent in pictures he took of the animal to his local newspaper and joked that this animal was a chupacabra. The paper thought Crabtree was serious and as a result, reporters began calling Crabtree.
What exactly is a chupacabra? Just like Big Foot and the Abominable Snowman, a chupacabra is an urban legend and mythical creature. Chupar means “to suck” and cabra means “goat,” fitting for the creature who is rumored to attack livestock and suck the animal victim’s blood like a vampire. ABC News reports that a book, “Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore,” the legend started only fifteen years ago in Puerto Rico. Over the years, there have been many sightings, mostly in both North and South America with some in Russia and elsewhere.
Benjamin Radford, the managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, doesn’t think chupacabras exist. Radford told ABC News, “It doesn’t matter what I write…People are still going to see a weird hairless thing, and someone is going to call it a chupacabra. I think the biggest answer is that people like mysteries.”
