El Chupacabras
Source: ParaScope The single most notable cryptozoological phenomenon of the past decade is undoubtedly El Chupacabras, the fearsome Goatsucker of Latin America. The legend of this livestock-slaughtering monster was born in small villages in
Puerto Rico in 1995, and quickly spread to Mexico and Hispanic
communities in the United States, ultimately becoming a worldwide sensation like no unexplained creature since the Bigfoot film of 1967.
El Chupacabras was preceded by a Puerto Rican monster known as the Moca Vampire, which had been reported in conjunction with a rash of UFO sightings in 1975. A number of farmers discovered animals massacred after strange lights appeared in the sky. Investigators examining the slain animals,
which included ducks, goats, geese and cows, noted with astonishment that they had been completely drained of blood with almost surgical precision. The Moca Vampire was apparently never sighted firsthand, but perhaps whatever it was possesses some connection to the creature that made itself known 20 years later.
El Chupacabras, the Goatsucker
In March 1995, the Puerto Rican towns of Orocovis and Morovis began to be plagued by some force that was mysteriously murdering their animals. The carcasses of goats, chickens and other small farm animals were reported to be thoroughly exsanguinated, with the blood often said to have been
drained out through a single neat puncture wound.
The first sightings of the creature were reported around September of that year. Madelyne Tolentino and other witnesses described the creature as a sort of a cross between a kangaroo, a gargoyle, and the pop-culture conception of the alien "Grey." It was said to be about four feet tall, with a
large, round head, a lipless mouth, sharp fangs and huge, lidless red eyes. Its body was small, with scrawny, clawed arms and webbed bat wings, and muscular hind legs that appeared to be built for jumping. The creature also had a series of pointy spikes running from the top of its head down its backbone.
Paranormal investigator Jorge Martin drew a sketch based on these descriptions (as shown on this page), which rapidly became the classic visual image of El Chupacabras, as the local media had dubbed the monster. The name, of course, is Spanish for "the Goatsucker."
Sightings and slain livestock continued to be reported in various parts of Puerto Rico throughout the fall of 1995. The Goatsucker allegedly killed 11 goats in the town of San German, and on one occasion a group of townspeople said they chased the creature away as it was attempting to kill three
roosters. In Canovanas, seemingly an epicenter of Chupacabras activity with more than 150 animal slayings reported in 1995, the town's Mayor Jose "Chemo" Soto sanctioned paramilitary patrols to hunt down the monster. Soto's political candidates accused him of pandering to his constituents' fears, and attempting to capture the anti-Chupacabras vote instead of the
creature.
After December, there was a lull in Goatsucker sightings, which some surmised was because the creature withdrew to inactivity during the winter months. And indeed, come springtime El Chupa rose again -- although this resurgence owed
more to the mass media than to warm weather. In March 1996, a segment on the Goatsucker appeared on TV talk show Christina, the Spanish-language Univision network's very popular counterpart to Oprah Winfrey. The show drew a tremendous response, and Chupacabras updates became a regular feature of the
program. This exposure spearheaded the migration of Chupamania into Mexico and the United States... and, perhaps not coincidentally, also preceded the first sightings of the strange predator in these new lands.
� 1999 by ParaScope.
http://www.parascope.com/en/cryptozoo/predators01.htm