Chupucabra Goat Sucker Puts Cryptozoology in the News Spotlight

You may have heard of el chupacabra - also called chupucabra, chubacabra, or chupa - the legendary goat sucker of myths, legends, and evenings on the Art Bell show. An urban legend near and dear to the hearts of Latin American would be mystery hunters, this figure is now making an appearance in Quero, Texas. Leave it to CNN to have footage of this event.

Granted, there are some lawmen who took footage of this creature and this of course does increase the authenticity quotient considerably. Yet from the rear of the animal - which is the majority of the footage - it looks an awful lot like a rather rotund coyote or dog. The brief profile shot makes it look like an overfed coyote with a rat like face only a mama coyote could love. Conversely, it might by an entrant into the ugliest dog (nee ugliest coyote) contest.

This of course flies in the face of the legendary sightings reported by so many onlookers elsewhere. Some claimed the chupacabra to be as tall as a bear, while others are certain it had stiff spines on its back. Still others are positive that the goat sucking chupucabra hails from the stars and is an extraterrestrial with a taste for goat blood. Then again, previously killed animals thought to have been chupacabras turned out to be mangy coyotes.

The Inquirer is also hot on the trail of the chupucabra, and in January of 2008 there was a sighting reported in Capiz Province. Their version, however, sounds a lot more like a vampire than a mere coyote with the mange.

Cryptozoologists have their work cut out for them. Their stock in trade, literally, is the hunt for animals that may or may not exist. Seeking to piece together their info from sensational stories, questionable eyewitness news, unconfirmed sightings, tales or lore, and of course the occasional witness who will tell a tale without embellishment, these researchers do not have an easy time researching.

After all, scientific funding is scarce, and trying to sell someone on offering a government grant for finding the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot just is not as easy as getting a grant to study new beetles in the Amazon or prove global warming. Of course, on the flipside of the sometimes eye rolling scientific community are the discoveries of the giant squid, mountain gorilla, and megamouth shark, all of which at one point were considered laughable flights of fancy.

An organization devoted to the study of the unusual is the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, a conglomerate of scientists and field workers devoted to lifting chupacabras, sasquatch and other creatures off the pages of the National Enquirer and instead put them into the biology text books in which they should belong. Then, of course, there are the websites devoted to the creatures in a fan like, sometimes irreverent manner.

Take for example the El Chupacabra site that presents a mix of fact, fiction, and commercialism and you see why cryptozoology has its hands full. In truth though, we know that we don't know. It is up to individual field researchers to cut through the red tape and present their films, evidence, and stand up to the ridicule of the established scientists.

This of course is somewhat reminiscent of the recent discovery of Hanny's Vorweerp that proved beyond a doubt that a hobbyist could indeed contribute to the scientific discovery of a new space phenomenon. Who is to say that you or I could not do the same with the chupacabra, Bigfoot, or any other such phenomenon?

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/12/pkg.tx.chupucabra.kens
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=112177
http://www.bcscc.ca
http://www.elchupacabra.com/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/937367/hanny_van_arkel_discovers_cosmic_ghost.html