November 1st, 2010

Chupacabra mystery solved? Every couple of months, a chupacabra sighting will take the country by storm.  Recent reports suggest that chupacabra’s are really only coyotes with a mange caused by Sarcoptes scabiei, according to National Geographic.

Chupacabra literally means “goat sucker” and is said to be a monster that goes around sucking the blood out of animals.  They are really quite scary, if you have ever seen a picture of them.  They appear to have fangs, which could be caused by their teeth becoming more prominent due to infections caused by the mites.

The mites cause the coyote’s skin to thicken, their hair to fall out, and their faces to swell.  They are more likely to attack livestock than their regular prey because they are weakened by the infection and need an easy target. Anyone who has had an infection knows that you would be irritable, and as such that’s likely why chupacabras are so mean.

Basically, the evolution of a human parasite migrating to wild animals such as coyotes has caused the phenomenon that we call the “chupacabra” or mythical beast.  What do you think? Do you think that explains it or do you think that the chupacabra is really a monster?

Here’s a video about a recent “chupacabra sighting”