The Chupacabra–the elusive goat-sucking beast for which canines with mange are all to frequently mistaken–may not even be plausible as an ancient myth. In Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction and Folklore killjoy scientist Benjamin Radford says it all just started in 1995 with one woman who saw a B-movie.
Madelyne Tolentino in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, saw the movie Species then came up with an account that pretty much matches the beast in the film says Radford, who is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. There has been a free-floating farm myth of a creature that kills animals and then eats them in bizarre ways. But if you’ve ever watched the Discovery Channel, you know that it’s really insects.
I first heard of the Chupacabra where I learned most of my cryptozoology: from the X-Files. In the 1997 episode El Mundo Gira Mulder and Sculler confront “an old Mexican folk-tale of El Chupacabra.” Only, not so old. I hope this means we can stop hearing about it every time some Texan sees a mangy dog.
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