Chupacabra
A blood-drinking creature first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, blamed for livestock found dead with puncture wounds.
Meaning
Stories began in Puerto Rico in March 1995, when dead goats said to have been drained of blood began to turn up; the name means "goat sucker". The creature's appearance goes back to a single witness, Madelyne Tolentino, whose sketch of what she saw in Canóvanas in the second week of August 1995 ran in a Puerto Rican newspaper (The Christian Science Monitor, 2011; Skeptical Inquirer, 2025).
Where did the chupacabra's look come from?
The investigator Benjamin Radford traced it to a film. Tolentino's creature closely resembles Sil, the alien designed by H. R. Giger for the 1995 science-fiction film Species, and Radford concluded that her description was based on it (The Christian Science Monitor; Skeptical Inquirer).
The Texas chupacabras
Later reports, mostly from Texas, describe something else: a hairless, dog-like animal on four legs (Weekly Alibi). DNA tests on animals killed as chupacabras found coyotes with a severe case of mange (The Christian Science Monitor).
Read next
- Next in Cryptids and folklore creaturesJersey DevilA creature of New Jersey folklore whose supposed hoofprints in the snow set off a scare across three states in the winter of 1909.
- The same shape in Egyptian hieroglyphicsScarabThe dung beetle, kheper, made into countless Egyptian amulets: the sign of the god Khepera and of new life after death.
See also
Kraken, Sea serpent, Loch Ness Monster, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch), Yeti (Abominable Snowman).
Sources
- El Chupacabra mystery origins traced to 1995 sci-fi film (The Christian Science Monitor, 2011), The Christian Science Monitor, 22 March 2011, The Christian Science Monitor
- Chupacabra Revisited: Dueling Origin Stories of the Hispanic Vampire (Skeptical Inquirer, 2025), Benjamin Radford, Skeptical Inquirer, April 2025, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
- The Radford Files: Seeking The Puerto Rican Chupacabra (Weekly Alibi), Benjamin Radford, Weekly Alibi, Weekly Alibi
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 28, 2026. How we research
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