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Goldstein said:
That's a dried ray or skate, definitely not a chupacabra... do a search for "Jenny Haniver" (sp?)...

You're right :lol: ...I missed the promised "expose" on last night's 10 PM news (I was out for the evening) but I saw the critter's true identity in today's paper:

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/30 ... -12-05.htm
(subscribers only)

Saturday, February 12, 2005

It's Creepy, Yes, But No Chupacabra

By Barbara Armijo
Journal Staff Writer
The Weekly World News won't need to bump the latest two-headed alien sighting off its cover for the oddity identified by New Mexico Game and Fish biologists last week.
A creepy-looking skeleton found on the West Mesa about four years ago is not the remains of a dreaded chupacabra, a mythical creature said to suck the blood from goats. Chupacabras have been immortalized in the TV show "X-Files." They have been said to be haunting ranchers in Puerto Rico for generations.
No haunting in Albuquerque.
The creature's a skate, a member of the stingray family that for whatever reason wound up on the mesa before someone stumbled upon it.
"My friend was walking out there and he kicked it up," Bob Wheeler said.
Wheeler kept the skeletal remains because he said they were just creepy enough to be interesting.
"I'd show people, just to freak them out," Wheeler said. "Just kept it in a box."
Then one day someone who worked at Game and Fish suggested he take it into the office to find out what it really was.
"We identified it that day," Brian Gleadle, chief of Northwest Operations for New Mexico Game and Fish, said.
"No mystery. It's a skate that has been cut up. It's common for a slice of the actual wing to be used as a food source, and that's what we believe was the case with this one."
The myth was put to rest last week.
Gleadle said there he couldn't tell if someone intentionally cut and molded the skeleton to make it look even more weird than it already is.
"Someone had to have caught it in the ocean, most likely in the Gulf of Mexico," Gleadle said. "Then they probably cut the part that was edible and tossed the rest."
He said the remains are at least a couple of years old.
Wheeler said he found the skeleton in 2002 and just never cared to find out what it was until someone suggested he take it into Game and Fish.
After state biologists identified it, Wheeler put it back in the box he had brought it in and took it home.
"Like I said, it's something weird, so I'm going to keep it," he said. "You know, conversation piece."
 
Another followup:

Game and Fish: Bizarre creature an ocean skate

Last Update: 02/12/2005 2:44:41 PM
By: Todd Dukart

A bizarre creature found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa wasn’t the chupacabra, the Department of Game and Fish said, but it was something that isn’t often seen in New Mexico: an ocean skate.

Some people thought the creature was the chupacabra, a legendary creature also called the “goat sucker.”

Construction worker Robert Wheeler said a friend of his found it four years ago on the West Mesa.

Game and Fish employee Marlene Bernal said she saw the creature in someone’s home.

“She had it a bedroom locked up and I said, ‘What are you doing with it locked up?’ “ Bernal said. “And she said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’ ”

Bernal said she noticed the creature had gills, so she and her husband thought it could be a fish they didn’t know about.

The woman then brought the creature to Game and Fish to be identified.

“There were about six officers here and they took a good hour and a half looking at it and studying it,” said Bernal.

At first, the department identified the creature as a stingray, but later found it was an ocean skate.

Albuquerque Aquarium manager Holly Casman said stingrays and ocean skates are similar, but ocean skates have wider tails than stingrays.

Camain said the creature looks so different because a fisherman cut most of the meat off.

It’s not clear why the creature ended up on the West Mesa, but one theory says someone either caught it or bought it and dumped it on the mesa.

Source
 
Yet another mangy dog mistaken for a chupa

Mysterious Beast Spotted
LAST UPDATE: 3/12/2005 11:31:30 PM
Posted By: CyberBob
Watch this story...


Just what is it? Another sighting of the mysterious beast many call the “Chupacbra.” This time the creature was spotted in East Texas – alive!

Someone in the Tyler area was able to snap a picture of the strange blue-grayish animal with long fangs.

It looks much like the one a San Antonio area rancher shot and killed last year. You may remember the so-called "Elmendorf Beast" that rancher Devin McAnally discovered in July. The story drew attention from around the world, and several of the animals have since been spotted across Texas.

Some say it's a coyote with mange. Others have wondered if it's the Chupacabra of Mexican folklore. You can judge for yourself by taking a look at our series of stories on this strange beast...

>Source<


tylerchupacabra150.jpg
 
Cupa Cabra

I've seen a documentary about leapords in India.

They bit animals on the neck, one animal had two large holes in it's neck.

Now then - what about the Chupa Cabra (suck - goat) in South America?

If a large cat was to bite an animal in the neck like a leapord apparently does, then two large holes in the jugular would probably lead to very fast blood loss.

Does that solve it?
 
why am i the only one whoresponded to the poll?
 
Because the poll was started as part of a new Chupcabra thread, yesterday, which was then merged into the main Chupa thread taking the poll with it.
 
Source


Possible Chupacabra Sighting

LAST UPDATE: 6/13/2005 8:58:43 PM
Posted By: Walker Robinson

Another mystery beast has surfaced in South Texas, and some say it might be a chupacabra.

The first one surfaced in Elmendorf last year. Now, one man in Luling, east of San Antonio, tells News 4 WOAI he caught a mysterious beast on video tape.

Chris Coble says he and a friend were driving and saw the creature peer out from behind a bush.

“We were driving down the road and he'd seen it, probably about 30 yards off the road,” Coble said of his friend. They were in a wooded area up near Luling.

“It was three foot tall, hairless, long, and had like a hunch back,” Coble said.

He brought the videotape to News 4 WOAI. On videotape, the animal looks like it could be a dog or coyote, but Coble says it could be a chupacabra.

A rancher in Elmendorf claimed last year he found a mystery beast on his property. That animal was sent away for DNA testing.

News 4 WOAI went to wildlife experts about the newest claim about the animal in Luling.

“I really don't think it is a chupacabra,” Tiffany Soecthing with Natural Bridge Caverns Wildlife Ranch said of Coble’s creature. “I would lean towards a dog that has a hair problem.”

Soeching said she has seen animals like it before and Coble’s "beast" looks like a wolf hybrid.
 
UT professor debunks chupacabra myth for Discovery Channel

Justin Ward

Posted: 6/15/06


UT professor Pamela Owen can add one more title to her resume: educator, scientist and supernatural investigator.

The producers of Mystery Hunters, an educational TV program for kids, asked Owen to help identify bones reported to belong to the mythical chupacabra. The chupacabra, whose name means goat-sucker in Spanish, is a fabled creature which attacks and mutilates live-stock, sucking the blood of its prey.

The bones belong to rancher Devin Macanally who shot the animal while it was attacking chickens on his ranch in Elmendorf. Photos of the animal, which later became known as the "Elmendorf Beast" show a small, hairless, dog-like creature.

Owen, who holds a doctorate in mammalogy with a specialization in carnivores, said that when she first heard about the "Elmendorf Beast," she agreed with biologists' initial findings that it was some kind of coyote with severe mange.

Owen's suspicions were later confirmed when the show's producers e-mailed her a photo of the creature's exhumed skull. Owen, who has been identifying bones for the Texas Memorial Museum for six years, was able to recognize the skull almost instantly.

"I wrote back and said, 'Nice coyote.'" she said.

Owen said she could understand how an average person could mistake the creature for a new species.

"What [Macanally] described was certainly not like any coyote," she said. "It was this hairless blue-skinned thing with disfigured teeth. This was a sick animal."

What is called supernatural phenomena can often be explained within the context of a natural world, Owen said.

"I still think the stories are great, but they are based on interesting natural phenomena," she said.

The investigation of the "Elmendorf Beast" was only one part of the episode. The show's teenage investigators also went to Puerto Rico, where the chupacabra myth originated, said Stephen Lawson, a researcher for Mystery Hunters.

Owen said that she was glad to take part in the show, because it is a way to teach children about the scientific method.

The program will air on Discovery Channel for Kids at the beginning of the fall season.

© Copyright 2006 The Daily Texan
 
The illustration of Chupacabra that fronted the issue of Scott Corrales' initial article was very powerful. Its what I think of when imagining the creature.
 
Beast

UT professor Pamela Owen....help[ed] identify bones reported to belong to the mythical chupacabra....Owen, who holds a doctorate in mammalogy with a specialization in carnivores, said that when she first heard about the 'Elmendorf Beast,' she agreed with biologists' initial findings that it was some kind of coyote with severe mange. Owen's suspicions were later confirmed when....[she was] e-mailed....a PHOTO of the creature's exhumed skull. Owen, who has been identifying bones for the Texas Memorial Museum for six years, was able to recognize the skull almost instantly.
[emphasis added]

It seems as thought every Texas biologist or mammalogist who's "studied" or "investigated" or "examined" the Elmendorf Beast has done so by a visual survey of the remains or - more often - by merely looking at photographs OF those remains.

Has NOBODY in the Great State of Texas ever heard of DNA analysis?

Otherwise, why this insistence on using 1906 Science to give a firm answer to a 2006 enigma?
 
Mange

According to everything I've read about mange (in both its main animal forms), by the time an animal is one-third covered it is severely off-feed, very often unable to consume anything other than water. By the time the animal is not much more than half-covered it is DEAD.

Yet one of the Texas Beasts was solidly stem-to-stern mange, so much so that one of the creature's ears CRACKED OFF when touched.

YET THE ANIMAL HAD STILL BEEN EATING NORMALLY!

Moreover, there seem to have originally been TWO Beasts, both equally mangey, travelling together, one of which was NOT captured and escaped.

So why is no biologist interested in this obviously NEW FORM of mange?

Or does everthing connected with this matter simply go down the same black hole occupied by those never-performed (or certainly never- released) DNA tests?
 
Re: Mange

OldTimeRadio said:
According to everything I've read about mange (in both its main animal forms), by the time an animal is one-third covered it is severely off-feed, very often unable to consume anything other than water. By the time the animal is not much more than half-covered it is DEAD.

Yet one of the Texas Beasts was solidly stem-to-stern mange, so much so that one of the creature's ears CRACKED OFF when touched.

YET THE ANIMAL HAD STILL BEEN EATING NORMALLY!

Moreover, there seem to have originally been TWO Beasts, both equally mangey, travelling together, one of which was NOT captured and escaped.

So why is no biologist interested in this obviously NEW FORM of mange?

Or does everthing connected with this matter simply go down the same black hole occupied by those never-performed (or certainly never- released) DNA tests?

I get red foxes in my north London garden with pretty much total body sarcoptic mange cover and they still eat food that's put out for them or scavenged. I tried to help them at my last flat by putting out dog food, as it's the lack of healthy food and vitamins in their diet which is apparently one of the main causes of their inability to fight off mange mites.

I really fail to see any controversy in these cases of mangey canids.
 
Re: Mange

Fats_Tuesday said:
I get red foxes in my north London garden with pretty much total body sarcoptic mange cover and they still eat food that's put out for them or scavenged.

Mr. Tuesday, thanks for the information. Every piece helps me gain a clearer picture.

But I STILL wish they'd DNA-test those Texas critters rather than relying simply of visual examinations....of photographs.
 
I've dealt extensively with sarcoptic and demodectic mange. Even animals completely covered with either have been good eaters. Most cases of demodectic mange that I've seen were animals that had been weakened by hunger. A few weeks of good food, the body recovers and the mange goes away. Sarcoptic mange is more problematic. But either way, my experience is that mange in and of itself is more an indicator of an inadequate diet, and not a cause of it.
 
Until last weekend (when I think it finally died) I had a mangy fox that was hanging out in my garden, and like Fats' foxes, this had no fur at all except a tiny bit on its face. I read that they lose their fear of humans because the itching is so terrible that they can't deal with anything else.

It was only when I first saw this fox that I realized how easy it would be to mistake mangy brutes for chupacabras - everything about this fox was alien: its gait was weird, as was its behaviour and general appearance. Very sad. It looked a bit like gollum as it would slope off when it could finally rouse itself.

And yep this one was still eating too (apparently they like jam or honey sandwiches with homeopathic mange treatment in [perhaps proof that homeopathy does work as loads of people swear blind on this treatment for mangy foxes] although why on earth they don't recommend giving the fox something more than empty calories I don't know).
 
I've seen very thin, demodectic dogs that, with proper feeding, were back to normal weight and normal coat in a matter of weeks.
 
AsamiYamazaki said:
....homeopathic mange treatment....perhaps proof that homeopathy does work as loads of people swear blind on this treatment for mangy foxes....

The information - or rather misinformation! - I provided here came from the website of a British outfit which treats mangey wild foxes using exclusively homeopathic remedies, apparently with some success. However, if their mange etiology is so untrustworthy I wonder if I can now accept their claims of cure!
 
So which form of mange DID the Texas animals have?

HAS this been firmly established?

And CAN the two types be differentiated from photographs?
 
Wow - we've gone exactly two years without a Chupacabra post! About time to change that...

Mystery animal photographed in Oklahoma reminds of legendary creature Chupacabra
(Photos at link - mangy something?)

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a... mythical creature?

One Oklahoma man believes that's exactly what he managed to photograph. Craig Martin recently captured three images of an animal he thinks could be a Chupacabra, a legendary species rumored to feed on the blood of goats.

The pictures show the animal feasting on the carcass of a dead animal, and even captures the face of the animal. To Martin, it's a match for the elusive prowler.

"It looks exactly the same, there's not much difference at all," Martin told 2NEWS affiliate KFOR in Oklahoma City.

While the scavenger does resemble web images of the Chupacabra, not everyone is buying it.

"What we're dealing with here is just a coyote with a bad case of mange," a biologist told KFOR.

Martin said while maybe that's much easier to accept, he's not so sure that's the whole story.

"I'm not saying it's not part coyote but I think it could be a hybrid," he said. "I think it's probably mixed with another species of dog, but it's definitely not just a regular coyote. They can say what they want."

Whatever it is, Oklahomans will be watching.

Read more: http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news ... z2MFPSJWvh
 
That tiny photo doesn't help.

Zooming in, I see a creature that looks exactly like this well-known cave creature (known to be fake):

rock.jpg


So...I suggest it is possibly a fake...
 
"El Chupacabra de las Montañas de Taco"

Taco Mountains. This may be the best place in the whole universe. :lol:
 
lordmongrove said:
The photo is of a model goblin at the crystal caverns in Somerset.

Yep, that's it.
 
Looks more like a few oddly placed branches than a debilitated demon from the bellows of hell.

Still, it seems like a creature of maybe 30+ kilos wouldn't be properly supported by the farthest reaching branches of the tree.
 
Mythopoeika said:
That tiny photo doesn't help.

Zooming in, I see a creature that looks exactly like this well-known cave creature (known to be fake):

rock.jpg


So...I suggest it is possibly a fake...

LOOKS LIKE OBAMA WITHOUT HIS SUIT TO ME... LOL
 
Oh no look, the bullet must have gone through the chupacabra and hit a poor mangy coyote.
 
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