The Chupacabra
Livestock found with small puncture marks started the legend of a creature that drinks the blood of goats.
What was reported
In 1995, farmers in Puerto Rico began finding goats, sheep and chickens dead with small puncture wounds, and the creature blamed became known as el chupacabra, the goat-sucker. A witness in Canóvanas described a spiny, upright creature with large eyes.
Reports spread to Mexico, the southern US and beyond. In Texas, the creature described changed to a hairless, dog-like animal, and several bodies were found.
Explanations offered
The writer Benjamin Radford found the first description closely matched an alien in a film released that year. The hairless bodies found in Texas were tested and turned out to be coyotes and dogs with severe mange. The livestock deaths have been put down to ordinary predators.
- When
- 1995 onwards
- Where
- Canóvanas, Puerto Rico
- Witnesses
- Farmers and residents in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Texas
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.