Chupacabras: The Blood-Sucking Creature from Hell
Is there a connection among chupacabras and the various small, vicious, flying monsters that have terrorized unsuspecting people around the globe for decades? Here's what they look like and what they've been up to.
THE FULL MOON rose above the mountain in the cloudless night, shining like a pale yellow lantern into the farmer's bedroom. But that is not what awoke him. It was the chickens. Their panicked cries had awoken him before, and it meant they were under attack. Wild dogs had gotten into the coop, the farmer thought, or perhaps a wolf. He leapt from bed, grabbed his shotgun from the bedroom corner and hurried outside. He checked the gun for cartridges as he jogged barefoot past the long, soft shadows cast by the moonlight toward the chicken coop. The predator will die tonight, he thought, as he pushed open the small door to the coop. He burst in and took aim. But he did not shoot. Instead, he froze, his senses overwhelmed by the sight before him. Several chickens lay dead in the dirt around the clawed feet of a creature the farmer had never seen before. This was no dog, no wolf [Although it was about the size of a dog]. It had dark gray fur noticeably longer on the back and shorter on the belly.The creature held a chicken in its mouth. It was not eating its prey, but seemed to be allowing it to bleed to death. It turned to face the farmer, its red eyes blazing, and dropped the chicken to the ground. It hissed, baring its large blood-stained fangs. Then it screeched - an unearthly, terrifying noise that drove the farmer backward into the doorway. The creature, with its front claws dangling, hopped on four legs toward the farmer. Dumbstruck, he stumbled backward out of the coop as the creature hopped past him with another deafening shriek. The farmer was knocked to the ground, and he could feel rough skin of the creature as it passed, and felt the warm, sickening smell of its putrid breath on his face. The creature sprung onto the roof of the coop, spread short, dark, bat-like wings, and with a bounding hop flew away into the darkness. It was only then that the farmer remembered he had his shotgun. He brought it to bear, but it was too late. The creature from hell had disappeared with one last shriek that echoed off the distant mountains.
Although this might sound like some horror story fantasy, it is actually based on the eyewitness accounts and experiences of those who have encountered the enigmatic creature known as el chupacabras - "the goatsucker."
The description, however, also seems to fit a number of other strange creatures that have been seen over the decades - creatures people have identified as gargoyles, the Jersey Devil and others. It's worth examining the similarities and considering whether these all might be sightings of the same mysterious creature.
CHUPACABRAS
The now-famous chupacabras first came on the scene, as far as we know, in the summer of 1975 when several farm animals in Puerto Rico were found dead. The bodies had strange puncture-like marks on their necks. The sightings intensified in the 1990s as the chupacabras' appetite seemed to grow. In some cases, farmers reported that literally hundreds of their animals were inexplicably slaughtered. Invariably, the animals were not eaten by any predator, but were horribly mutilated or drained of blood - hence the name, "goatsucker." In 1991, a male dog was found dead, with nothing inside. "It was as if all had been sucked out through the eyes," the report said. "It had empty eye sockets and all the internal organs had disappeared."
[You could conceivably extract the brain through the eye sockets but neither one conncts to the body cavity. There must have been another opening that was missed and through which the viscera was removed-DD]
For a while, the carnage seemed to be confined to the island of Puerto Rico, but toward the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, sightings began to be reported on other Caribbean islands, in Mexico, Central America, Chile and even the southern U.S. in Florida, Arizona and Texas. In April-June in Chile of 2002, in fact, it was reported that authorities had even captured the chupacabras, which may have been taken away by people representing the U.S. government.
The descriptions of the creature over this time has [indicated more than one type of creature involved-DD]
The chupacabras phenomenon continues up to this day, with the recent reports of attacks continuing to come out of South American countries, including Chile and Argentina. In many of these cases, chupacabras - although not seen - was blamed for the deaths of chickens and other farm animals that were mutilated and drained of blood.
Next page:http://paranormal.about.com/od/chupacabra/a/chupa-from-hell_2.htm The Jersey Devil and Gargoyles
THE JERSEY DEVIL
The legend of the Jersey Devil dates back to about 1735, by most accounts, in Leeds Point, New Jersey. A Mrs. Leeds, the story goes, upon discovering that she was pregnant for an unlucky thirteenth time said that the child might just as well be a devil. Folklore says that this prophecy came true, and that Mrs. Leeds gave birth to a horrific creature with a horse's head and bats wings. Ever since, the legend goes, the creature has been haunting the pine barrens of New Jersey.
No one takes the legend seriously, of course, but the Jersey Devil has been blamed over the years for a number of mysterious livestock deaths and eerie cries in the darkness. And the first sighting in the 20th century occurred in 1909 when a Pennsylvania postmaster allegedly saw the glowing monster flying over the Delaware river. Less than a month later, the flying creature was spotted by a policeman in Burlington, New Jersey. A few days later, a woman in Philadelphia claimed to have seen a similar monster in her backyard. And that evening it was seen by two more police officers in Salem, New Jersey, and the next night by a fisherman. Note their collective descriptions compared to chupacabras:
- long, thin wings (other accounts reported bat wings) (Wingspan of 11 feet once alluded to)
- four short legs, the hind ones being longer than the forelegs or vice versa
- walks on its back legs and holds up two short front legs with paws on them
- red glowing eyes
- a head like a dog and face like a horse. large sharp fangs
- alligator-like skin or furry skin
- able to breathe fire (Probably "Steaming breath" since this was in a cold January night)
- about three feet high (some described it as much larger)
- hoof-like feet (assumed from the tracks mostly)
- one witness described it as monkey-like, on all fours.
Although the Jersey Devil is alleged to have been seen over the years, none are taken as seriously by researchers as the 1909 sightings.[amend that to "none is taken seriously by most researchers"]
[Cutting article here at "Gargoyles". Dale D has amended the text above in several places to be more in line with the data at hand. It does seem that the Jersey Devil is the same creature as is also called the Snallygaster or Snollygoster in the nearby districts of West Virginia to Maryland, but in that case the desriptions are even more confused and contradictory, anbd in that case also probably based on more than one kind of creature]
It is probably more useful to remember these creatures are commonly known as Devils or Devil Bats, "The Bat Out of Hell," including in the Spanish-Language equivalents. "Chupacabras" means something else, a different creature, and the name is mistakenly applied here.
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| Vampyrum Spectrum Linnaeus |
Chupacabras Thoughts, UFOMYSTIC, January 18, 2007
[After an introduction mentioning the CFZ Chupacabras expedition, Nick Redfern goes into some back history. Later on a woman witness named Norka is named and she also saw a winged creature in 1975 or 1976. She is interviewed in Jon Downe's book as well-DD]
...But yesterday’s email suggested yet another avenue of investigation worth exploring. According to the story, in the summer of 1967, a strange beast was observed late one evening “struggling on the ground” on farmland in the Moca area of the island.
The beast appeared injured and the farmer, terrified that it was something demonic, fled the scene to the safety of his home. The next day, the creature was gone. Several years later, however, he confided in his son the details. And it’s the son’s story – via an intermediary – that has now surfaced.
The son does not hold to the “demonic” angle, however: he believes that what his father had seen was some form of giant bat – and he bases this on the description of the creature having “a face like a little monkey – but much bigger,” a dark colored body, and distinctly bat-like wings. Now we are not talking about something the size of a large bird of prey here. No: the witness told his son that the animal appeared to be “near human in size.”
Now, of course, some will merely scoff at this report and relegate it to misidentification, legend, or the rumor-mill. However, reports of giant bats are surprisingly common. Since this is more akin to the field of cryptozoology, I won’t go into reams of detail. But several such cases are worth mentioning, at least.
Cameroon has the Olitiau – an immense bat-like beast, with large wings, a monkey-like face, and black fur. A similar creature is said to exist on Madagascar: the Fangalabolo. From Java, come reports of the Ahool: a giant bat with a 12-foot wingspan. The Guiafairo (whose name translates to “The fear that flies by night”) of Senegal falls into the same category; while the mythology of Indonesia tells of the Orang-Bati, once again a large bat-like entity, that lurks within an extinct volcano on the island and abducts children.
Of course, many of these reports (and particularly the story of the Orang-Bati) are the stuff of legend. But, behind many legends, there is often a semblance of truth. Is it possible that the Chupacabras of Puerto Rico is not an alien entity, a straightforward superstition, or the work of U.S. psychological warfare planners; but may indeed be some form of very large bat?
Such suggestions have been postulated before*. However, the problem with the Chupacabras is that the tales of the beast have reached near-mythical status, and as a result it is the idea that the animal is one of high-strangeness which has led to its worldwide fame – and infamy. Indeed, I know from my now-several firsthand visits to the island that, in the eyes of many people there, the Chupacabras can only be an unknown entity – alien, demonic, monstrous, or (most absurdly) the nefarious work of “secret, government genetic engineering.”
Now, if the beast does turn out to be merely a large type of bat, that should not diminish the importance of the discovery. Indeed, whatever the answer turns out to be, we should embrace it. Something is afoot on Puerto Rico; of that I am absolutely certain. But I find it intriguing that for the most part, there broadly appears to be two schools of thought: one that suggests the beast has truly exotic origins (aliens, demons, the paranormal, “the government”), and one that points in the direction of fakery, superstition, misidentification, and the rumor-mill. Neither camp (or at least very rarely) touches upon the idea of an indigenous, yet undiscovered animal of far more down-to-earth origins.
It must be said that if the creature has less sensational origins than has been perceived, then in some quarters this is bound to cause major disappointment. And, on the other hand, if the tales are found to have a basis in reality, then those that dismiss the subject completely out of hand will definitely have egg on their faces. But that says more about the “I want to believe” factor (or indeed, the “I don’t want to believe” factor) of the subject than anything else.
Perhaps it’s time that both camps broadened their horizons.
*"Before":
CHUPACABRAS:
Threat of the Goatsucker
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By Rene Villegas
MEXICO CITY, May 10 (Reuter) - Is it a bat? Is it a witch? Is it from
Mars?
This much is known: it is furry, has big bulbous eyes and sucks the blood
of goats and other creatures. The mysterious vampire-like creature known as
``Chupacabras'' (goatsucker) has gripped the fevered imaginations of many
Mexicans.
While government officials appeal for calm, enterprising trinket sellers
have jumped on the bandwagon with Chupacabras T-shirts and key-rings in the
northern city of Tijuana and are offering tours of sites allegedly linked to
the creature.
Some say it is an extraterrestrial life form. Others say drought in
Mexico's northern states has driven bats, wolves and coyotes to carry out the
attacks to slake their thirst. Reports from at least nine of the 31 Mexican
states tell of attacks on animals and one person by the fanged menace.
Witnesses say it sucks their blood until they die, leaving tell-tale
puncture marks on the neck and other mutilations.
The designs on the Tijuana key-rings and T-shirts, taken from the
accounts of witnesses who claim to have seen the creature, show a giant,
furry winged rodent with staring eyes and razor-sharp teeth.[The PR. Version-DD]
The attacks are not just on goats. Reports from remote rural regions
list sheep, cows, horses, hens, pigs and rabbits among Chupacabra's victims.
Only one man so far says he has been attacked. A shaken Angel Pulido, a
campesino farmer from the village of La Alameda near Guadalajara in the
western state of Jalisco, recently showed reporters two bite marks on the
right arm he says he got from ``a giant bat that looked like a witch.''
``And you should know that my husband is very brave and isn't easily
frightened,'' his wife, Irma Ponce, told Siglo XXI newspaper.
Maximiliano Esparza, governor of the northern state of Durango says --
possibly tongue-in-cheek -- he is considering offering a reward for the
capture of the Chupacabra. Other officials are trying to dampen the wave of
panic with a dose of scepticism.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Romarico Arroyo said on Thursday there is no
such thing as a Chupacabra and also took time to deny the presence of
extraterrestrials in Mexico. ``This has gone from a scare to a form of
entertainment,'' he said, adding that all the cases investigated by the
ministry showed that wolves or coyotes had carried out the attacks.
The health ministry of the northern state of Sinaloa had a different
explanation, saying on Wednesday that the mysterious creature is most likely
a 32-inch (80-cm) bat, sometimes known for blood-sucking, which lives in
remote mountainous areas.[POSSIBLY this means the KNOWN False vampire bat-DD]
The state's medical services chief Carlos Vega said the bats are
suffering from the drought, which has killed many of the animals they usually
feed on, and are ranging further afield than usual in search of prey.
The rage has reached Mexico City, where among the hundreds of acrobats,
fire-eaters and clowns, many of them children, who ply the streets in search
of the odd motorist's coin, little ``draculas'' with plastic fangs have now
appeared.
``Goatsucker fallen on hard times: help me out,'' a sign carried by one
of them read.
Reuters Variety
--It is notable that the Mexican sightings in these cases refer to the Giant False Vampire bat. The initial Puerto Rican reports refer to the even larger bat, The American Ahool, although reports of the more moderate-sized ChupaBat later proliferated in both Puerto Rico and in Florida.
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| Illustrations of Chupacabras as Devil Bats |
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| Vampyrum X2 compared in size to chickens, which would be a convenient-sized food item for such a bat. The bat is comparable in size to a moderate-sized dog, large cat, or large Chicken hawk. |
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| Early Chupacabras as a bat, as drawn for a Puerto Rican Newspaper |
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| This puzzled me until I realised that The artist had drawn the EARS of the False Vampire Bat as if they were EYES |
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| Chupacabras as drawn in Chile |
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| The False Vampire bat, Vampyrum spectrum |
http://rlp.tripod.com/chupabat.html/
By Renee Lara
Puerto Rico, 1993, in a town named Canovanas, about a dozen goats were found dead at a small farm. Their owner found them without blood in their bodies. Similar cases started to be made public in other areas of Puerto Rico, later in California, Texas, and even in Northern parts of Mexico. The general public did not know who or what to blame for the attacks so they started referring to the attacker as the Chupacabra. The Chupacabra, or Goat-sucker as it would be said in English, obtained its name because some of the first victims found were goats. There are many assumptions on what this ‘being’ is; they range from tales on extraterrestrials to wild dogs. However, the logic of these theories do not fit the common characteristics of the Chupacabra.
Since the beginnings of time, many animals have developed new ways to survive. Some have become larger or smaller, and others have acquired brightly designed furs. All these in order to accommodate to the new habitats that man is constantly changing due to innovations in technology. So, perhaps the Chupacabra is a new form of evolution of a parasitic mammal that lives in the areas where the Chupacabra has attacked. This mammal is from the family Desmodontidae and its appearance, feeding style, and attacking mode matches the Chupacabra’s almost to a one hundred percent; the mammal is commonly known as the Vampire bat.
| The Chupacabra is described as being of medium size, from two and a half feet to three feet in height. The people that claim to have seen it say that it is of a grayish to brown color, and that the hair on its back ‘sticks up.’ The eyes of the Chupacabra are one of the most striking features; according to the witnesses, the eyes are big and elongated upward with a dark-red to wine coloration. It has been said that the Chupacabra has protruding fangs and a skin-like membrane that joins the arms with the Chupacabra’s sides of the body. The membrane was also seen between the Chupacabra’s long fingers, and apparently the Chupacabra can fly with the aid of this membrane. By trying to put a picture together of all these features, anyone would deduct that the Chupacabra is an alien; however, if all the characteristics are carefully analyzed, any individual can see that the Chupacabra and Vampire bats are very similar. |
There are three types of Vampire bats: Desmodus rotundus, Diaemus youngi, and Diphylla ecaudata, which can be found throughout the areas of Northern Mexico, extending into Central and South America (Walker 324-326). Vampire bats all have basic similarities among each other, and also with the Chupacabra. In Vampire bats, the fur is colored in different tones of gray, and the bats’ back have darker tones of gray that go into a dull brown. Since these bats are found in areas of warm climate, their fur is short and each hair is spaced out from the other hairs. This gives the bats’ hairs an appearance of being raised and in disarray (Brown 21), or ‘sticking up,’ as in the case of the Chupacabra. Vampire bats have very specialized teeth. The most notorious are the front incisors and the canines, which are sharply pointed in order to cut into a victim’s skin. Vampire bats have large eyes that are very dark in color, and in some areas of Sonora, Mexico, these bats have been found to have pink to red eyes (Brown 22). Bats are flying mammals; therefore, they have wings which are attached from their arms and long fingers to the sides of their bodies. These wings have a leathery appearance, just like the membranes seen on the Chupacabra. Vampire bats are not very large in size;
| however, a new evolution of a Vampire bat could very well reach the size of a small toddler. This could happen since "the Largest or the Great Ternate Bat, is, in general, about a foot long, with an extent of wings about four feet; but sometimes it is found far larger, and it has been said that specimens have been seen of six feet in extent" (Brown 20). This makes it very possible that anyone, who might have seen a new Vampire bat of larger size than it is commonly known, could have , because of fright and ignorance, exaggerated its size and appearance and mistaken it as a monster from outer space. |
Many of the Chupacabra believers would like for it to be a being from another world; they would like to tell skeptics that they had been wrong to think that the Chupacabra was a dog. According to veterinarians and other officers of the Department of Agriculture in Puerto Rico, wild dogs are the ones that have committed the attacks ("El Chupacabras"). However, dogs could not have been the ones to have committed most of the attacks on the animals. Many of the attacked sites were located next to the houses of the owners, who claimed that they did not hear anything. If dogs had been the ones responsible for the deaths, the owners would have heard the barking and howling of the dog or dogs attacking, and eventually the barking of all the other neighborhood dogs. Whenever a dog attacks an animal, it usually does it in a very vicious way (dog attacks leave recognizable traces). Some of the traces would be the damaged cages of some of the animals, scattered feathers in the case of chickens, ducks and geese, missing animals that could have been eaten, smashed plants and dug holes at the sides of the cages, and the wounds found on the animals. A dog’s bite can scar the entire area of skin where the bite was given, plus it can tear a victim’s muscles. In the Chupacabra’s victims none of these traces are noticeable; the skin and muscles do not have any trauma internally or externally other than the punctures through which the blood was extracted. These killings were made clean and efficient, just the way a Vampire bat would do it, and dogs definitely are not clean hunters.
So far, the Chupacabra has not actually been seen in action. Apparently the Chupacabra attacks only during the night and does it in an extremely careful manner. The way punctures have been made indicate that the Chupacabra climbs on the victim’s back in order to bite it. Non-skeptics speculate that the Chupacabra’s bite is not painful since it does not awaken the animals (including hens, which are known to be extremely scandalous). How can something bite into an animal’s skin without being noticed by the victim itself? This is quite a simple task performed by Vampire bats. Vampire bats land on top of the animals very gently, or sometimes the "Vampires advance on their targets as circumspectly as possible, on foot" (Leen 139). Their teeth are so thin and sharp that it is quite easy for them to bite into the skin and cut a small piece of it. "This operation is practically painless and usually does not disturb the sleeping or quiet animal or human being" (Walker 322). Vampire bats then proceed to lick the wound with their long tongue in order to add an anti-coagulant so that the blood will not clot. After this is done, the flowing blood is then lapped with the tongue. All of the procedure is done very cautiously in order not to awaken the victim. Even if the victim is to wake up, there is no much that it can do in order to get rid of the Vampire bat, unless of course, the victim is a human; in this case the person would probably try to hit it and then call for help. However, neither the Chupacabra nor Vampire bats get near people that often; apparently both prefer the blood of "cattle, mules, horses, and goats" (Allen 96).
Another characteristic that intrigues the owners of attacked animals is the apparent lack of blood in the victims. Almost every person that has analyzed the deaths, claim that they were not able to find any blood in the bodies of the animals. Nevertheless, when the veterinarians of the Department of Agriculture in Puerto Rico made autopsies to about twenty of the animals, they found the correct amount of blood that was expected (Navarro). The animals were not completely drained after all. Vampire bats are able to drink blood up to sixty percent of their weight and sometimes a Vampire bat can "drink its own weight or more, and starving individuals have been known to draw up to two ounces of blood from a victim" (Brown 48). Two ounces do not sound like a lot of blood; however, when a significant amount of blood is extracted, any victim becomes weak and runs the risk of dying. In chickens the extraction of two ounces of blood can be fatal, since "in nine out of ten the feathered victim dies" (Allen 96). If a small one ounce Vampire bat can do this to a chicken, then a larger developed bat of nearly three feet in height could definitely weaken a goat or cow to death.
| Other characteristics of the Chupacabra that can also be related to those of the Vampire bats are the hind legs and the odor the Chupacabra emits. According to the people that have seen the Chupacabra, it is able to stand on its two hind legs. One of the witnesses said that the Chupacabra "jumped like a kangaroo down a Canovanas street and... it exuded such a sulfurlike stench that her 1 1/2-year-old son, who was in the car with her during the second sighting, was still coughing from it" (Navarro). Vampire bats, besides flying and walking almost straight on their feet, can also leap and jump. Vampire bats’ hind legs are very strong and on the bottom of their feet they may have pads that help them move silently while they jump from one place to another. Jumping is extremely necessary for Vampire bats and apparently for the Chupacabra also. Being able to jump |
| Since Vampire bats can "become established in southern Florida, Cuba, or even the lower Rio Grande Valley" (Brown 35), it might be possible that the Chupacabra sightings in these areas were actually the apparitions of an evolution of Vampire bats. Vampire bats can be found in fairly large groups, which would explain why the Chupacabra was seen in so many different places of the southern United States and other areas of Latin America in almost consecutive days. For many Chupacabra believers, the thought of having larger Vampire bats living in these areas sounds strange; nevertheless, it can | . |
Allen, Glover Morril. Bats. New York: Dover, 1939. Brown, David E. Vampiro: The Vampire Bat in Fact and Fantasy. Silver City, NM: High-Lonesome Books, 1994. "El Chupacabras: La Hora de la Verdad." Ocurrio Asi de Noche. Narr. Enrique Gratas. Telemundo. 21 June 1996. Leen, Nina. The World of Bats. New York: Holt, 1969. Navarro, Mireya. "El Chupacabra." New York Times News Service 26 Jan. 1996: n.p. Turner, Dennis C. The Vampire Bat. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. Turner, Edward, and Clive Turner. Bats. Sussex, Great Britain: Priority Press Limited, 1975.--Once again, this author assumes living descendants of the Giant Vampires of the past and also giant bats up to 3 feet tall/the height of a child: in my case I make that out as three distinct species sorted out at the different heights because there is so much difference in the heights. The middle one is the Giant False Vampire (Vampyrum sp. nov.) and the one most often reported in Chupacabras cases as raiding henhouses and killing livestock. Even ordinary vampire bats are capable of killing humans, horses and cattle, though.
There is something of a mistaken impression going on as far as most commentators go: Many predators kill their prey by letting it bleed to death, including human hunters. Furthermore, all mammalian predators that kill warm-blooded prey by use of their mouths have experienced drinking the blood of their victims at some point or another. I have now seen statements from different sources which state that False Vampires "Sometimes" drink blood, but then so do ordinary dogs and cats.What does presumably happen is that the doublesized-Vampyrum bats bite down with their very long fanged canine teeth and the terrible wounds the teeth inflict can indeed lead to a lot of blood loss quickly, particularly if a major blood vessel is severed. The Chupa-Vampyrum has fangs estimated as an inch long and perhaps a third of an inch thick at the base: the mouth is said to extend in a gape of up to eight inches and the bite is said to be able to crush the skull of a lamb. The ordinary Vampyrum has a bite which commonly crushes the skulls of parrots and parakeets it likes to feed on and I could forsee that any ordinary hencoop or dovecote would be very tempting to an outsized Vampyrum.
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| Skull of the known False Vampire bat, Vampyrum spectrum |
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| Scientific Illustration fot the known species of Vampyrum. Showing the insubstantial hind legs extended. The puny hind legs are also noted in drawings of the Jersey Devil |
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| Toy Chupabat, Probably based on sightings of The Giant False-Vampire Bat "Chupacabras" |
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Love these posts about the connections between the Chubacabra and the American False Vampires. I think it is also probable that people are exaggerating the size of stray members of the known species as well. We have had little brown bats fly into the house and people exaggerate these tiny bats into pigeon-sized monsters when they retell the story.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note could the old world giant bat reports refer to a larger member of the Megadermatidae false vampire bats? I mentioned this sooner but my comment seems to have been lost.
Blogger can be funny with comments. My own comment in reply to the last one posted failed to go through and here I am five hours later trying to replace it. But I am sure your earlier posting naming the Megadermatidae must be around here someplace, although I can't remember where it might be right now myself.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought the Megadermatidae were particularly good candidates for the giant bats particularly in and around SouthEast Asia. I had even planned to do a blog about it, but I was not satisfied with the material I had for that idea at present. I was going to be speaking of the Philippines "Vampires" in particular, for one thing, but most of the stories in that part of the world seem to be describing the same sort of original creature.
Best Wishes, Dale D.