The first known attacks occurred in March of 1995 in Puerto Rico.[2] In this attack eight sheep were discovered dead, each with three puncture wounds in the chest area and were completely drained of blood.[2] In the 1970s, similar killings in the small town of Moca, were attributed to El Vampiro de Moca (The Vampire of Moca).[3] Initially it was suspected that the killings were done by members of a Satanic cult; later more killings were reported around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life. Each of the animals had their bodies bled dry through a series of small circular incisions.
Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio Pérez is credited with coining the term "chupacabras" soon after the first incidents were reported in the press.[4] Shortly after the deaths in Puerto Rico, other animal deaths were reported in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Brazil, the United States and Mexico.[2]
Reported sightings
In July 2004, a rancher near San Antonio killed a hairless dog-like creature, which was attacking his livestock.[5] This animal, initially given the name the Elmendorf Beast, was later determined by DNA assay conducted at UC Davis to be a coyote with demodectic or sarcoptic mange. In October 2004, two more carcasses were found in the same area. Biologists in Texas, examined samples from the two carcasses and determined they were also coyotes suffering from very severe cases of mange.[6] In Coleman, Texas, a farmer named Reggie Lagow caught an animal in a trap he set up after the deaths of a number of his chickens and turkeys. The animal was described as resembling a mix of hairless dog, rat and kangaroo. Lagow provided the animal was provided to Texas Parks and Wildlife officials for identification, but Lagow reported in a September 17, 2006 phone interview with John Adolfi, founder of the Lost World Museum, that the "critter was caught on a Tuesday and thrown out in Thursday's trash."[7]
In April 2006, MosNews reported that the chupacabra was spotted in Russia for the first time. Reports from Central Russia beginning in March 2005 tell of a beast that kills animals and sucks out their blood. Thirty-two turkeys were killed and drained overnight. Reports later came from neighboring villages when 30 sheep were killed and had their blood drained. Finally eyewitnesses were able to describe the chupacabra. In May of 2006, experts were determined to track the animal down.[8]
In mid-August 2006, Michelle O'Donnell of Turner, Maine, described an "evil looking" rodent-like animal with fangs that had been found dead alongside a road. The animal was apparently struck by a car, and was unidentifiable. Photographs were taken and witness reports seem to be in relative agreement that the creature was canine in appearance, but unlike any dog or wolf in the area. It was reported that "the carcass was picked clean by vultures before experts could examine it", but this is unlikely as no species of North American vulture is native to the State of Maine. For years, residents of Maine have reported a mysterious creature and a string of dog maulings.[9]
In May 2007, a series of reports on national Colombia news reported more than 300 dead sheep in the region of Boyaca, and the capture of a possible specimen to be analysed by zoologists at Universidad Nacional of Colombia.[10]
In August 2007, Phylis Canion found three animals in Cuero, Texas. She and her neighbors purported to have discovered three strange animal carcasses outside Canion's property. She took photographs of the carcasses and preserved the head of one in her freezer before turning it over for DNA analysis.[11] Canion reported that nearly 30 chickens on her farm had been exsanguinated over a period of years, a factor which her to connect the carcasses with the chupacabra legend. State Mammologist John Young estimated that the animal in Canion's pictures was a grey fox suffering from an extreme case of mange. In November 2007, biology researchers at Texas State University-San Marcos determined from DNA samples that the suspicious animal was merely a coyote.[12]