El Chupacabras

El Chupacabras // Puerto Rico, USA

The legend of El Chupacabras is closely associated with Puerto Rico, where stories of a strange creature attacking livestock began gaining attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly around the towns of Morovis and Canóvanas.

The creature has been described as bipedal and roughly the size of a human child, with gray or dark skin, large and unusual eyes, and small arms ending in claws. Some descriptions also give it powerful hind legs and a row of quills or spines running down its back. I will come back to those spines later, because they remind me of another strange creature from North American folklore.

According to the legend, the Chupacabras attacked livestock, particularly goats. Animals were reportedly found dead with puncture wounds around their necks, and some witnesses claimed that the bodies appeared to have been drained of blood.

These mysterious attacks gave the creature its famous name: Chupacabras, from the Spanish words chupar, meaning "to suck," and cabras, meaning "goats." In other words, the goat-sucker.

Morovis is located in the north-central region of Puerto Rico, approximately 60 km (38 miles) from the capital of San Juan. Canóvanas lies in the northeastern part of the island, about 30 km (19 miles) from San Juan.

In 1994, the mayor of Canóvanas reportedly organized expeditions involving local citizens and volunteers in an attempt to find and capture the mysterious creature. Municipal police accompanied the searches, but the expeditions came up empty-handed.

Once reports of the Chupacabras began receiving media attention, the legend quickly spread beyond Puerto Rico. Similar sightings and mysterious livestock deaths were eventually reported in places such as Mexico and Texas.

However, the creature described in these later accounts often looked very different.

In Texas and Mexico, the Chupacabras is frequently described as a strange, hairless, four-legged animal with a canine appearance. One common explanation is that some of these animals were actually coyotes suffering from mange, a skin disease caused by parasitic mites.

This is very different from the original Puerto Rican descriptions of a bipedal creature with large eyes, powerful hind legs, and spines along its back. Because of these differences, I sometimes wonder whether we are really dealing with one legend or whether several different creatures have gradually become grouped together under the Chupacabras name.

But Was There an Earlier Puerto Rican Creature?

Interestingly, Puerto Rico had another mysterious livestock-killing legend years before the Chupacabras became famous.

Around 1975, reports emerged from the town of Moca involving mysterious livestock deaths attributed to a strange creature that became associated with the name El Vampiro de Moca, or the Vampire of Moca. Some accounts described it as more bat-like or vampiric than the creature later identified as the Chupacabras.

Moca is located on the northwestern side of Puerto Rico, approximately 130 km (80 miles) from San Juan.

Whether the Vampire of Moca and the Chupacabras belong to the same tradition is difficult to say, but the similarities are intriguing. Both legends revolve around mysterious creatures attacking livestock and leaving behind unusual wounds.

A Curious Similarity to the Pukwudgie

There is one more connection that I find particularly interesting.

The Puerto Rican description of the Chupacabras shares a few physical similarities with the Pukwudgie, a small supernatural being found in Native American traditions of northeastern North America.

The Pukwudgie is not known for sucking blood or attacking goats, so I am not suggesting that the two legends are directly related. However, some descriptions of Pukwudgies portray them as small, humanoid beings with large eyes and porcupine-like quills or spines.

Those characteristics are surprisingly similar to certain descriptions of the original Puerto Rican Chupacabras: small, bipedal, large-eyed, and covered with spines along its back.

Coincidence?

Probably.

But when studying folklore and cryptid legends, those unexpected similarities are often what make the stories so fascinating.

Have you heard other stories about the Chupacabras or encountered legends about similar creatures?

If you would like to share one with me, send me an email at info@jbarbabooks.com.


J. Barba

Sketch drafted based on a newspaper image from San Salvador, El Salvador - El Diario 26th of November 1995