Image via Inexplicata.
The chupacabra is a “cryptid” (a creature supposedly undescribed by science) that showed up in Latin American folklore and cryptozoology only in the late 1980s (some sources say the 1990s, but I’m pretty sure that’s inaccurate). A purported doglike animal that sucks the blood of goats, sheep and cows, it is periodically thought to be behind various livestock attacks throughout Latin America — but most recently in Puerto Rico, where the bulk of recent sightings have occurred.
This Argentinean case is making the rounds of paranormal and cryptozoology blogs with a vengeance — partially ’cause of the extremely bloody photos and partially because — hey, who doesn’t love a chupacabra attack?
According to a news item in Misiones Media, translated by Scott Corrales at Inexplicata (“The Journal of Hispanic UFOlogy”), a farmer in Campo Viera, Argentina, reported to the local Sheriff’s office that ten of his sheep had been attacked and killed by an unknown animal that left bite marks on their necks.
A single footprint was found nearby, described as “a large, deep footprint with three long toes…like that of a bird, but somewhat larger.” The animal did not eat any of the creatures, nor were there any injuries found anywhere but the neck. The Sheriff reported that whatever attacked them left behind traces of — hold on to your hats — “mucus.”
The argument that a puma or jaguar could be behind the attacks is weakened by the fact that the sheep weren’t eaten. Then, as the word “Chupacabra” began to be whispered throughout the region, cows with similar injuries were reported in nearby Campo Grande, and other sheep were reportedly attacked. A resident told Vision Ovni:
The sheep have injuries to their necks, they’re clinging to life…they don’t drink or eat, they’re in poor shape. The cow has bites on its teats…It’s as though all of the blood had been sucked out. The vet that came here, cut one of them (the sheep) and not even water came out.
Misiones Media proceeds to report:
Most of the sheep chosen by the so-called Chupacabras were pregnant, increasing uncertainty about the creature that is loose in the area.
At Inexplicata, Silvia Pérez Simondini and Vision Ovni provide an incredibly detailed report in Spanish on the incidents, which Scott Corrales graciously transated in its entirety.
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My Spanish isn’t great, but I believe what marcelo is saying is that the chupacabra is a mythological legend — a story for children, but paramilitary monsters are real. He then seems to say something about incidents in rocky area. I’m not all that sure, really.