The chupacabra ("goat sucker" translated literally into English) is a supposedly vampiric creature with several descriptions, although some are very similar to a character in the alien-horror movie Species released in 1995, several weeks before the most notorious sighting, in Puerto Rico in 1995, several more attacks being reported in the next few weeks, although attacks have been reported in the southeastern U.S., Mexico, Central America, parts of Chile, and even Russia and the Philippines. One description, similar to the character in the film, has the chupacabra as a reptilian bipedal creature 3-4 feet tall (about a meter to 1.3 meters) with dark green leathery skin, large fangs, three-fingered clawed hands, no tail, large eyes on a rounded head, and a line of spines or quills running down the spine. It can supposedly hop like a kangaroo, up to 20 feet in one sighting. Another description is very similar but it is dark grey and emits a rank odor. This description does not match any fossils or bodies found, and it is highly unlikely to exist naturally, nothing slightly resembling it at all in the fossil record, of course fueling rumors that it is a government lab-made animal, alien, or an alien's pet.
More realistic descriptions are "rat-kangaroo-deer", quadrupeds with naked bodies, rat-like tails, pointed ears, and a canine head. This is most likely the result of wild canines (feral dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes) with severe cases of mange, which is a state caused by parasitic mites normally found on humans that cause a red itchy rash known as scabies, but is nothing more than mildly annoying. But humans pass the mites on to domestic dogs, which then pass on the mites to wild canines, and the result is much more dramatic, if severe causing all the fur to fall out and weakening the animal greatly, a potentially fatal affliction. This at least accounts for many sightings, as the animals are virtually unrecognizable to a normal person without their fur, at least appearing quite strange. Also, mange can cause a foul smell, making a further case for canids afflicted with mange to be at least partly responsible.
But what makes the chupacabra so famous are the attacks; mysterious puncture wounds, in either ones, twos, or threes, always on the throat, and some large enough to put a human finger into. These are apparently the cause of death, but what is so mysterious is that the carcasses are never eaten at all, absolutely no mark on the animals besides the puncture wounds. The odd number of punctures is explainable, one canine possibly from shots from farmers trying to kill it or scare it off when it was healthy but nearby livestock, but causing it to have a much harder time hunting, so it goes after domestic animals instead (this has been a proven cause for "cattle killer" jaguars to start attacking livestock-old gunshot wounds, so this could happen with canids). Three is possible if one of the lower canines punctures as well, or if the animal adjusts it's grip. The uneaten bodies are probably results of very weak animals that manage to make an eventually fatal wound, but the chicken or goat escapes for the moment. Also, a kill may have been made and the carcass dragged away unnoticed, as a farmer will likely notice one missing chicken with no small number of live ones and several dead chickens on the floor. The "vampiric" description is from the uneaten carcasses with wounds on the neck, apparently drained of blood (classic vampire behavior), but necropsies (post-mortem examinations) were usually not used, and some bodies have been necropsied, with the conclusion that the chickens had not been "drained" of blood, but the predator had simply cut the jugular or another major artery and the chicken had simply bled out. Also, to finish all this, two last slightly skeptical points:one, a troop of macaque monkeys (they stand upright) could have escaped on Puerto Rico (there were some for testing in 1995) and that the throat is a classic canine target.
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