Free Republic

All of the local biologists are saying that what was found in Ratcliffe was a hairless raccoon; however, I believe the evidence points to a hairless white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) or a new, undiscovered subspecies. Even though we live in a developed country, there is a lot of land out there, especially in a state like Texas, for even megafauna to go relatively unnoticed; however, since we are in South Texas, which has one of the highest rates of biodiversity in the United States, finding weird and uncommon animals should not be a surprise. In an April 7 article, Jackie...

RATCLIFFE, Texas — Deep in the back woods of South Texas, you never know what might be lurking around the corner, or in your tree. “He saw this strange animal up here eating corn,� Jackie Stock said. In Ratcliffe, a small town in DeWitt County, residents are certain they've found the mythical, despicable chupacabra, and this time, it's alive. Ratcliffe Resident Jackie Stock said her husband caught the creature Sunday night. “He called me to come and look, and I said ‘Bubba that looks like a baby chupacabra,’” Stock said. With its hairless back, large claws, countless teeth and ferocious...

The Ohrt family in Victoria, Texas, gunned down an unidentified beast in their backyard over the weekend. The mangy beast looks like a Coyote with big teeth and long legs. Although the Chupacabra's existence has yet to be confirmed, that hasn’t stopped rumors of possible sightings.A south Texas family claims that they killed the mythical Chupacabra in their backyard. Doug and Lucy Ohrt of Victoria proudly displayed the slain beast that their grandson gunned down on their property last weekend. “My grandson ran and got the gun and shot it at 240 yards, and my grandkids said, ‘Oh that's a...

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – There has been a strange sighting of a strange creature in a suburban New Jersey town – and pictures of it have residents asking “What the heck is that?” CBS 2’s John Slattery was working the day watch out of Manhattan, when his boss gave him this juicy assignment. He took a vehicle out of Midtown. The sighting happened on Friday. He and his cameraman headed for the leafy community of Ridgewood, which was apparently being terrorized by an odd creature that lurks in and out of storm drains. Slattery obtained video of the creature from...

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a... mythical creature? One Oklahoma man believes that's exactly what he managed to photograph. Craig Martin recently captured three images of an animal he thinks could be a Chupacabra, a legendary species rumored to feed on the blood of goats. The pictures show the animal feasting on the carcass of a dead animal, and even captures the face of the animal. To Martin, it's a match for the elusive prowler. "It looks exactly the same, there's not much difference at all," Martin told 2NEWS affiliate KFOR in Oklahoma City. While the scavenger does...

<p>Human skulls deliberately warped into strange, alien-like shapes have been unearthed in a 1,000-year-old cemetery in Mexico, researchers say.</p> <p>The practice of deforming skulls of children as they grew was common in Central America, and these findings suggest the tradition spread farther north than had been thought, scientists added.</p>

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668). The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392). Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA: "Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to...

In the south African nation of Namibia, a bizarre muppet-like beast has been shot and killed. Unlike its distant relatives — the abominable snowman, bigfoot, and the chupacabra — this one has been caught on film. Locals in Namibia were escorting a shooting party through the country when they found the body of the strange muppet-like beast, and they picked it up and brought it back to the town with them, according to the Telegraph. Witnesses to the event said that locals saw the creature scavenging for food. One member of the shooting party shot and wounded the beast, and...

Fabled 'Chupacabra' or mutant fox poisoned by radiation? Hunters baffled by dog-like animal found in former Soviet republicVets in Ukraine are struggling to identify a 'mutant' animal shot by hunters in a remote area of the former Soviet republic. Locals say it is a mystery 'Chupacabra' - allegedly sighted a few times in recent years - that preys on rabbits, goats and house animals. Grey in colour and with ‘fangs’ and a longish neck, it has shorter front legs, slightly resembling a kangaroo, while also showing a likeness to a dog and a fox, say those who have seen it....

A pack of hairless critters that has taken to a patch of woods just north of U.S. 183 and RM 1431 in Cedar Park has people in the area wondering if the creatures could be the legendary chupacabra. Authorities, however, are blaming the sightings on mangy coyotes. "I don't know what it is," said Rick Cumptson, who has seen the animals in a field outside of his store, Bunk Beds Etc. "I'd never even heard of chupacabra until about two weeks ago. I started looking, trying to figure out what the hell these were." Cumptson said he's seen the creatures...

PERU, N.Y. — They roam by night, picking cornstalks clean, making off with apple crops. They have almost no natural predators, but they have razor-sharp tusks and a seemingly bottomless appetite for plants and animals. Their population can triple in one year. They are feral pigs, and while they have long plagued parts of the Southern and Western United States, now they have become a problem in the peaceful Champlain Valley of New York, an agricultural heartland on the edge of the Adirondacks.

Residents in northern Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa, have reported being terrorized by a bizarre dog-pig hybrid creature. The animal is said to be mostly white and unlike anything the villagers have ever seen, with a doglike head and the broad, round, nearly hairless back and shoulders of a giant pig. The beast was spotted chasing and attacking dogs, goats and other domestic animals in this arid region not far from the Kalahari desert. As often happens when rumors of monsters spread in rural areas around the world, some locals have taken extra safety precautions, such as traveling...

A stuffed and mounted dog with blue skin and eyes may revive the legend of the Chupacabra in the Southwest after the myth was largely debunked last year as merely coyotes with a severe case of mange. But an extremely scholarly, investigative report by amateur cryptozoology student Jon Downes raises new questions about the legend and breathes new life into the myth. The findings? Apparently there is a heretofore unknown species of wolf hiding in the vast wildernesses which still exist in Texas. Both of a red and blue variety, the cryptid creatures exhibit many of the features long attributed...

If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him? In the new Animal Planet reality TV show optimistically titled "Finding Bigfoot," a team of experts examines video of an alleged Sasquatch spotted in the Canadian Rockies. The video, shot by a man named Todd Standing, shows something large and dark, standing atop a wooded ridge and then ducking back behind a bush. It could pretty much be anything, and when the experts concluded that the subject was probably not a Bigfoot, Standing expressed his frustration: "No video is ever going to be evidence, ever. It's never going to be good enough…"...

Recently Erin Christiansen, the chief meteorologist for KGUN TV in Tucson, was driving around Tucson when a creature of some sort darted out in front of her car. Christiansen immediately thought chupacabra, the blood sucking beast of urban legend that has been described in pictures as everything from looking like a crazed coyote to a space alien. KTAR showed Grey Stafford of the Wildlife World Zoo the photos that KGUN viewers snapped and he says it's likely a feral dog or coyote with a skin disease. "It makes for a great story," Stafford said. "Every region of the world has...

On Tuesday, December 20, 2011, a 37-year-old man from Canada revealed video and photos taken in Obatanga Provincial Park, Ontario that seem to show images of the elusive chupacabra. Although the man doesn't mention the chupacabra by name in his description of the creature, he does use the term as one of the tags on the video that he posted to YouTube. According to the man's description on philysteak's Channel: "While camping in Obatanga Provicial Park, At 2:00 am I heard this strange noise outside my tent. When I went out to investigate what was I saw this unusual fox...

Ozarks family might have a mystery on its hands -- in the form of an odd animal that attacked and killed some chickens in the neighborhood. After weeks of wondering, they finally spotted the yellow-eyed culprit, but they're wondering what it is. On Tim Stroll's remote Strafford property, there are goats and horses. There used to be others. "Next thing was, my chickens were disappearing." Stoll was really taken aback when he found a bird on his porch brutalized, but alive. "Whatever it was, it was killing animals in broad daylight." Then last Saturday, Stoll and his step-son Dalton Pennington...

A string of livestock mass-killings by an unidentified creature has struck fear into Russian farmers. A number of towns from Chelyabinsk in central Russian to the Moscow region have suffered, with the death toll from the latest attack reaching 30. Farmer Vasily Velikodnev found the butchered sheep in their fold on a September morning in Kolomna region, some 100 km south of Moscow. He was immediately struck by the manner of the killings. According to the farmer, the tendons in the sheep’s back were ripped, in order “to cut their arteries and suck out their blood” – a trademark of...

With its blue hairless body, rounded ears and scarily sharp teeth, this strange creature has been creating quite a stir. Shot dead by a Mississippi homeowner, it has re-opened the debate as to the very existence of the mythical chupacabra - which is said to hunt livestock by sucking the blood out of animals. Truitt Barnard, who gunned the beast down in his Simpson County garden after spying it from 130 yards, said: 'Strangest animal I've ever seen. I've been hunting 50 years. 'It had a long face, no hair, red rough hide, his ears were rounded, and had double...

It may not be not the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot, but a mysterious-looking creature seen near a hospital in Maryland has now been identified. The animal--which possessed the different characteristics of a rat, coyote and deer--was trapped last week, and a Maryland Department of Natural Resources official identified it as a fox with mange, The Washington Post reported. "Like all wild animals, especially canine species, people should avoid feeding or otherwise attempting to befriend this critter," wrote Paul Peditto, director of DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service, in an email. "Mange affects a portion of most wild fox populations and...

Workers at Maryland's Prince George's Hospital Center have adopted a mythical creature as their new mascot. The creature has been spotted in the woods where smokers take breaks since the hospital banned smoking June 1st, but no one knows what the animal is, so they've named it Prince Chupa, after the chupacabras - the legendary cryptid rumored to exist in parts of the Americas and suck the blood of livestock. "It's a kangaroo, dog, rat mixed," X-ray technician Joe Livermore said. "It's got a rat tail and a head like a deer. I don't know what it is." People started...

Two days after Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials brought in a mystery carcass, found in rural Douglas County, no positive identification has been made. D.N.R. Area Wildlife Supervisor Kevin Kotts said Friday that after examining the remains, there are no clear signs of it not being a badger, however its longer tail is inconsistent with badgers he has seen. Kotts said there are clear signs that the animal was hit on the road, suffering skull fractures, but an intact jaw could help determine a positive identification. He said he expects fur trappers who have more experience with local mammals...

A blood-sucking creature is preying upon goats near Novosibirsk. As rational explanations run thin on the ground, the specter of the so-called chupacabra raises its demon head. Horrified farmers and smallholders are confronted by the drained corpses of their livestock in the morning, bloodless and bearing puncture marks to the neck but otherwise largely in tact. But local cops are reluctant to record apparent vampire attacks, as they await official recertification, leaving the locals up in arms. Blood-suckers “If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk! Only our police force are doing jack-diddly about it,”...

A Texas teen is claiming he shot and killed a real live chupacabra, but many biologists suspect the hairless animals are in fact sick coyotes or another wild animal. Across an open field in Texas, Carter Pope spotted a strange animal. "It just walked across and started shaking, slowly moving across," Pope said. "No hair on it at all, the back legs were shriveled up, and I honestly think it was a chupacabra." Pope said he ran to his parents' room to wake up his dad to come see what he had discovered. "I thought, 'I'm dreaming or this kid...

A teenager in Texas says he shot what may be a chupacabra. Carter Pope, 13, told KPRC in Houston he woke up Sunday in La Salle, Texas, and saw a strange animal. "Something slowly came across and started shaking, slowly moving across," Carter said. "It was gray, no hair at all. I thought 'That's a chupacabra.'"

Photos he snapped behind his house in Lake Jackson, Texas ended up on the front page of his local newspaper with this headline: “Chupacabra reportedly spotted in Lake Jackson.” The photos show a gray, hairless dog slinking away through tall, green grass. But Crabtree, a retired wildlife biologist, says he was only joking when he sent the photos to The Facts. He thinks what he saw was a coyote with a bad case of mange. “It was a spoof or practical joke,” Crabtree told the paper in a follow-up article Tuesday. “I really didn’t believe it.” Too bad for Crabtree,...

Benjamin Radford, author of several books on monsters and paranormal phenomena, managing editor of the journal The Skeptical Inquirer and LiveScience columnist, has released what he says to be definitive proof that El Chupacabra is not real; it's not even a hoax, he said, but rather a leftover memory of a science-fiction film.

<p>The legendary chupacabra has been spied, shot and killed -- will bigfoot be next?</p> <p>A man in Kentucky found a strange, hairless creature prowling his front lawn December 18, a critter he believes to be the mythical chupacabra, a beast from Hispanic folklore supposedly known for attacking goats and other livestock (chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish).</p>

BERWICK, Louisiana (WVLA) - A deer hunter captures a spooky image wandering through the Louisiana woods at night. A hunter near Baton Rouge says he found this freaky photo on his deer stand camera. The hunting camera was broken but the memory card was still there and so was this bizarre image. It looks like a cross between a human and an animal, with long slender appendages and glowing eyes. The hunter says he just hopes it's a vegetarian, if he runs into it in the woods again.

Chupacabra Mystery Solved By Jennifer Viegas Halloween stories about the ghostly "chupacabra" circulate every year, but now scientists have solved the mystery surrounding this legendary animal. Instead of being vicious, fanged creatures that supposedly drink the blood of livestock, chupacabras turn out to be wild dogs inflicted with a deadly form of mange, according to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor. (Scientists believe legendary chupacabras monsters are actually coyotes with severe cases of mange, like the animal pictured here. Credit: Dan Pence) The myth about chupacabras, also known as goatsuckers, started after reports of livestock attacks in Puerto Rico and...

(English-language translation) The chupacabras does exist but is not a monster; rather, a diminutive attacker that turns a wild and harmless animal into an ugly and disturbed species, University of Michigan biologist Bary O'Connor maintained. In an article published in Skeptic magazine, the specialist explains that the real culprit behind cattle deaths is a small, eight-legged creature that, upon biting species such as coyotes, causes a mange that transforms them. He recalled that the existence of the chupacabras was first mentioned in Puerto Rico after dead sheep were found with sharp wounds and carcasses completely drained of blood. Similar reports...

It's a mysterious animal that most say is mythical, but for one Mission man, the creature is no myth. "It's kind of a weird animal," said Frank Lozano. "It's a different animal." Lozano said Thursday afternoon around 3:30 p.m., a so called "chupacabra" made its way onto his property. "I saw him," said Lozano. "He never ran." Lozano said he saw the animal come through a gate and that's when he ran, got the gun and shot the animal. From there, Lozano dragged the carcass closer to his home where his neighbors and friends could get a good look at...

(Sept. 2) -- Shepherds in Mexico are up in arms -- or heads, as the case may be -- over a rash of beheadings inflicted on their goats, and many people are blaming the legendary predator known as the chupacabra. Over the past two months, more than 300 goats owned by shepherds in Mexico's Puebla state have been decapitated by someone, or something, that hasn't yet been tracked down. According to various reports, Felix Martinez, president of Colonia San Martin, recently stated that nearly 40 goats were killed near his municipality. Strangely, there was reportedly very little evidence of blood...

A large and mysterious creature is ripping apart cattle in a small village of Ecuador. Although the original article is in Spanish, Google translation tries its best to translate it to English, but fails. So I will paraphrase. The small community of “La Cuadra” (The block) has seen multiple cattle mutilated and torn apart by something powerful. The ghastly findings are out of the ordinary, even for local known predators. The residents concluded that what ever it is that has killed steer and cows, it’s powerful enough to rip them apart and leave huge, deep prints with large claws in...

A group of teens in Tecumseh make an unusual sighting. The group now wonders if they ran across the legendary chupacabra. The kids claim to have spotted the unique creature in the woods behind Tecumseh High School. A cell phone picture of the mystery animal backs up their story. "It's got long back legs and it's front legs are small. It has a long tail and doesn't have any fur," said Ryan Craighead. An internet search of "chupacabra" turns up some interesting images of reptilian sci-fi creatures. Wildlife experts say the chupacabra is an unproven folktale. "It is a mythological...

A barn in Hood County, Texas, has become ground zero in the hunt for the chupacabra. Earlier this week, animal control officer Frank Hackett shot and killed what was unquestionably one of the ugliest creatures to ever walk the planet.

Is the legendary "goat sucker" stalking Hood County? Two strange, coyote-like creatures have been killed with in 10 miles of each other, and locals say the animals could be chupacabras. Hood County Animal Control Officer Frank Hackett killed the first creature last week. He found it in an old barn. When it growled at him, he put the animal down. "It was ugly, real ugly, I'm not going to tell no lie on that one," he said. A few days later, a rancher killed a similar creature. Jack Farr, who owns the property where the first coyote-canine-cross was spotted said...

The creature from the deep Mystery ... the creature was dragged from the lake By STAFF REPORTER Published: 21 May 2010 THE body of a mysterious creature with fearsome teeth, thick black fur and a rat-like tail has been dragged from a lake. The hideous beast was discovered by two horrified nurses after their dog Sam pulled it from the murky water. The gruesome animal has baffled experts and triggered speculation that it could be similar to the famous "Montauk monster", which was washed up in New York two years ago. Pictures were posted on a local website after nurses...

HORIZON CITY, Texas, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Two Texas men said they have a prime suspect in the slayings of 30 chickens on their property, El Chupacabras. Cesar Garcia of Horizon City, Texas, said he found 20 chickens dead and drained of their blood Saturday morning and his brother-in-law, Juan Miranda, found 10 chickens killed the same way in a different coop Sunday morning, the El Paso (Texas) Times reported Wednesday. "I saw the chickens were dead, but there was no blood around the sheet metal," Garcia said. "All of them were just dead in one big pile. But, really,...

Reporting from Denver - Manuel A. Sanchez has ruled out every logical explanation for the fate that has befallen the calves on his ranch in southern Colorado. Over the past month, he's found four calves dead in a way that he cannot reconcile with anything in his 50 years of raising cattle: eyes and ears missing, tongues and genitals excised in what appeared to be a series of fine cuts.

Two men in Texas believe they may have discovered the body of a chupacabra – a mythical beast rumoured to suck all the blood out of its prey. Published: 9:18AM BST 03 Sep 2009 Lynn Butler, a taxidermist, says that he found the mystery creature's corpse in a chicken barn three months ago, the morning after an unseen predator was heard running amock. While its hairless, leathery body and pointed muzzle resemble a dog with severe mange, other animal eerts who have inspected the corpse have suggested it may be a chupacabra, a predator first sighted in Puerto Rico in...

A man living north of San Antonio says he has quite the animal sitting in his freezer -- and it may be a mythical chupacabra. Jerry Ayer, a teacher at the Blanco Taxidermy School in Blanco, Texas, told TV station KSAT that he's never seen anything like it. "Different, that’s for sure, very interesting," said Ayer. The find comes amid a number of strange sightings in the area. The animal is gray in color with leathery, hairless skin and large fangs. "The front legs seem to be a little bit longer than a typical coyote, very irregular and never seen...

DeWITT COUNTY, Texas -- The legend of a mythical blood-sucking animal roaming South Texas gained new life over the weekend as two DeWitt County sheriff's deputies spotted what they said they believe was the creature. Video: Chupacabra Caught On Camera? Cpl. Brandon Riedel was training a new deputy on Friday when he said they saw something running down a dirt path along fence lines. "You need to record something like this because it's not everyday you find something that looks like this, running around out in the middle of the county," he said. The short-legged, hairless animal had a long...

CUERO, Texas — Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. "It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin. Canion...

Some lady in Texas found this creature dead near her ranch. She doesn't know what it is and is calling it a "Chupacabra." The head looks like some sort of dog, but the body resembles a boar. The weird thing is it's got very little hair and dark, wrinkly skin. Any ideas just what this strange thing is? (It's ugly--could be a campaign worker for Hillary)

Has a mythical beast turned up in Texas? By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer August 31, 2007 Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. "It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Bush administration can go ahead with a pilot program to allow as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies to freely haul their cargo anywhere within the U.S. for the next year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request made by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and the nonprofit Public Citizen to halt the program. The appeals court ruled the groups have not satisfied the legal requirements to immediately stop what the government is calling a "demonstration project," but can continue to argue their case. The trucking...

One week after Chile’s Armed Forces released photos and videos of UFO activity around the country, Chile’s mainstream media has once again gone extraterrestrial with various Chupacabra sightings reported throughout the country. Chupacabra – literally translated as goat sucker – is the name for a mythical creature known for sucking the blood out of farm animals throughout Latin America and the southern United States. Many enthusiasts speculate that Chupacabras are aliens – or escaped alien pets – as evidence of the creature is frequently reported in tandem with nearby UFO sightings. While UFO activity is typically reserved for Chile’s tabloid...

Cambodia's National Animal Never Existed, Scientists Say Nicholas Bakalar for National Geographic News November 3, 2006 The national animal of Cambodia probably never really existed, a team of researchers says, at least in the scientific sense. Since 1960 the Southeast Asian nation has claimed the kouprey—an ox with spectacular crescent-shaped horns and a dewlap under its chin—as its national symbol. But after conducting genetic tests, a team of researchers from Chicago's Northwestern University has concluded that the animal was most probably not a unique species at all. The researchers, led by Northwestern biologist Gary J. Galbreath, sequenced the genes of...