Chupacabra in Texas

Towns along the Texas-Mexican border are full of stories about the demon El Chupacabra in Texas. The last few years have seen a rise in stories about this blood-sucking creature with red eyes and blue skin that waits in the dark to attack its prey.

Tales of the Chupacabra are widespread throughout Mexico, so perhaps stories of the creature have traveled north along with the people who immigrate into Texas. If the creature is actually real, it might also have made a natural migration northward. With the advent of digital photography, a number of people claim to have captured footage of the Chupacabra with sightings being reported in Texas, California and even into the lower southern states.

At times, it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what is urban myth about this creature.

The Chupacabra is a creature that originally came from the folklore of Central America and Puerto Rico. Sightings spiked in the 1980s and 1990s, but began to occur again over the last three years in towns scattered along the Texas-Mexican border.

Chupacabra translates to goat-sucker, and the creature has the reputation of sucking the blood from farm and domesticated animals. It supposedly attacks quickly and ferociously leaving only the desiccated husks of its kills behind.

In more urban areas, the Chupacabra in Texas has taken on the role of scary monster in the closet – the Mexican-American equivalent of the boogeyman – that keeps children on their best behavior.

For people living in the northern mountains of Mexico, El Chupacabra is taken more seriously. The same applies to ranchers and animal owners across the region since livestock are tied to the ranchers' way of making a living.

In 2007, Phylis Canion found a dead animal on the road that runs past her ranch in Cuero, Texas. She is convinced that it's the Chupacabra. She saved the head of the animal and sent it off for DNA testing. Looking like a cross between a dog, a coyote and a wild pig, the animal has blue skin, is practically hairless, has pointed teeth descending down from the upper jaw,and its back legs are shorter than its front legss.

While DNA testing was not totally conclusive, the results pointed to wild canine ancestry.

For state biologists and environmental scientists, that is enough to prove that El Chupacabra is some sort of mutated dog, coyote or possibly even a fox that has mange. The disease causes the hair to fall out leaving the natural bluish color of the skin exposed.

Drenching rains flood the animals' dens and either drown the creatures or force them to look for new territory closer to populated areas. Some scientists think that since these creatures seem to prefer drinking an animal's blood to eating its flesh, this might be a symptom of the disease that increases the creature's need for fluids.

As for Phylis Canion who once lived in Africa, the head she found is mounted and stuffed, and it and hangs on the wall beside those of large African animals. To this day, she can be found talking about her experience on radio shows, podcasts and television shows about Chupacabra sightings in the state. She also sells T-shirts with an image of the animal, and people from around the world have purchased the shirts.

It's no surprise that the Chupacabra in Texas has become notorious. Reality blended with paranormal overtones has once more created a story that is just as spicy as the region's chili peppers, and just as impossible to resist. While not as venerated as the Loch Ness monster, the creature has acquired a cult following, and many a tale of El Chupacabra still causes a collective shiver through those gathered around the campfires and fireplaces of the American West.

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