Are Chupacabras Werewolves?
Analysis of a monster that has been massacring men and livestock for a thousand years.
Cryptozoology is an unofficial branch of zoology that studies all those animals that science deems impossible, yet have a basis in reality, even if this is based on testimonies and not concrete evidence like carcasses or organic fragments. "Cryptids" include the famous Mokele-Mbembe, the Loch Ness Monster, the giant squid, and the Rods. Another animal, which has been sporadically mentioned in chronicles for about a thousand years due to its thirst for blood, is the Chupacabras. In cryptozoology, it is one of the most well-known yet mysterious beings. Known because its modus operandi and descriptions, even across centuries when it was known by various names (werewolf, lycanthrope), surprisingly coincide; and moreover, the recent wave of sightings and indirect evidence (domestic animals killed by "unconventional bites") that has affected Latin America - and beyond - has provided researchers with a significant amount of data.
Mysterious because these data do not clarify what it is or its origin, to the point that all theories, even the most fanciful ones, seem possible.
The name "Chupacabras" comes from Spanish meaning "goat sucker," which already gives an idea of what this phantom animal does. It seems that the person who coined this term was a Puerto Rican television comedian using it as a joke on his show: but from there, the name caught on in the collective imagination, and in many South American towns, mentioning this word prompts the locals to make superstitious gestures.
This is because the Chupacabras has a habit of attacking its prey, which includes domestic animals such as goats, but also foals, calves, sheep, chickens, and even dogs and cats. Through necropsy examinations on the carcasses of its victims, researchers have found interesting elements: the creature bites its victims in the throat, causing numerous skin lacerations, and one or more holes in the neck, at the carotid artery, up to 7-8 cm deep and about one centimeter in diameter, with clean edges, generally arranged in a triangle. In most cases, the animal bitten by the Chupacabras dies instantly, as the puncture immediately reaches the brain. Through these holes, the Chupacabras surprisingly extracts all the blood, leaving its prey literally drained of vital fluids, almost shriveled. Around the puncture, however, there is no trace of a jaw clamped around the victim's neck, as if the blood were sucked out by a pump.
A peculiar fact is the absence of rigor mortis: the body of the killed animal does not show the typical stiffness of the post-mortem phenomenon, which is quite strange considering that in cases of death by exsanguination, sarcolactic acid, responsible for tissue elasticity, is completely absent. What is odd is that even in the few cases where there is some trace of blood, it does not coagulate even after several days, almost as if there is a substance in the saliva that prevents the body from stiffening, unlike what happens in all living beings whose biological processes have ceased. In addition to draining the blood, the prey is often also mauled by claws and horrendously disfigured.
But what does the Chupacabras look like? Sightings are not frequent because the animal attacks at night and carefully avoids humans. There are no photos of the Chupacabras, except for one taken in Argentina in 2002, which was never disclosed, not even on the internet: it seems that it was seized by secret services...
There are many imaginative reconstructions online, just as imaginative as the descriptions made by farmers, except for a few common elements. Some say it resembles a dog, others a panther, some claim it has the features of a kangaroo, and some even believe they have seen it fly. According to some, the Chupacabras has bony plates or scales along its back and a forked tongue; others describe it with spines or bristles, and still others say its back resembles that of a stegosaurus. Standing up to 1.2 meters tall, it is said to have a pointed head with large canine teeth and flaming red eyes (and a pair of wings for those who say it flies). Its color is described as black, gray, or green, and it likely has cheek pouches containing an anticoagulant serum and the ability to "hypnotize" its victims before draining their blood.
While authorities dismiss it all as fantasies and self-suggestions, attributing the attacks to some feral dogs, it is interesting that the animal preferably hunts prey up to one meter in height, weighing no more than 30-40 kg. The Chupacabras attacks stealthily to suck their blood through a bite to the throat, so silently that even dogs often do not notice its presence. In some cases, the beast is said to have even opened gates and enclosures, suggesting a dexterity that implies intelligence superior to that of typical domestic animals.
If these are the hunting animals, we must remember that some human beings have also fallen victim to Chupacabras in very recent times. However, these are isolated cases: the being preferably attacks medium-sized animals. But it wasn't always like this in past centuries.
In 793 CE, animals defined as "frightening and terrible" swept through many areas of the Middle East, killing dozens of people in Cappadocia, Syria, Armenia and Assyria. The 'Chronicon' of the Greek Denys de Tell-Mahre describes them thus:
"...the small and elongated muzzle, with large ears similar to those of horses. The skin on the spine resembled the bristles of pigs and stood straight."
This description, especially regarding the hair standing up on the back, is very emblematic. These who were commonly called "Werewolves" attacked men in open fields, attacked villages and "kidnapped" children, decimating flocks of goats and sheep; after having plundered almost the entire Asia Minor, they disappeared without a trace and have never returned to those places since then. A similar animal also infested Germany around 870 CE, and after a large wolf was killed by a nobleman, people began to think that rabid wolves were attacking livestock and humans. However, it does not seem to us that the wolves' hunting methods occur through the bleeding of the victims, nor that the wolves attack alone or that they feed only on blood. It is clear that if it is an animal, it also has anatomical characteristics different from the wolf.
For several centuries there were sightings of what were considered "hell dogs" or werewolves. A little across Europe, wolves and excessively hairy men began to be burned at the stake, as the werewolf was often associated with a human who had dealt with the Evil One. But the sightings continued and the descriptions always coincided, as did the victims. In 1577 near Blythburgh, England, a "hell dog" attacked and killed two men and a child. In the following years a mysterious ghost donkey called 'Padfoot', black and with rolling red eyes, would wreak havoc on livestock around Leeds for many months.
The description of a witness who saw a hell dog at the beginning of the 19th century paints it
"as a Newfoundland, very thin, shaggy, with very long tail and ears, eyes like balls of fire and large fangs, which could be seen because it had opened its jaws..."
In those years the Were Chupacabra infested the area between Scotland and England. The methods were the usual: he bit the animals' throats and sucked their blood, killing about ten animals every night. After a large black dog was killed, the phenomenon stopped, but actually moved to the next island. Indeed, the decimation of sheep in Ireland began. There was talk of wolves tearing thirty sheep to pieces a night, but it was impossible: the last canine on the island was killed in 1712.
For many years therefore another werewolf terrorized the Green Island, and then disappeared into thin air and moved to the distant Russia. The Chupacabras changed their diet here, returning to children and even women. The farmers described him as a long, black being, with a stumpy snout like that of a pig, donkey ears, elongated and rounded, red eyes and a long tail. The tsarist army was entrusted with its capture by the highest authorities, there was a general mobilization but not even a shadow of the werewolf, only the footprints of what looked like a large dog...
Other sightings occurred in 1910 again in Great Britain, in Ireland, then after the two World Wars the monster moved to Bangladesh, where it claimed dozens of human victims in the 1960s. Then in India, in China, until appearing in 1990-1992 in Puerto Rico and from there in Florida, Texas, in practically all of Latin America. Similar sightings were made in the 90s also in Europe, in 2000 also in Italy.However, the two most sensational cases of massacres carried out by Chupacabras (or hell dogs, or werewolves, if you prefer) occurred in the 18th century in Italy and France.
The first massacre occurred with the famous "Beast of Gévaudan", which terrorized the area of Gévaudan in the Lozère department, in central-southern France, from 1764 to 1767. The story has the typical contours of the Chupacabras story: a beast
"as big as a calf, with a broad chest, a strong neck, pricked ears, a greyhound muzzle, a black throat with two long and sharp lateral teeth, a fringed tail and a white stripe running from the top of the head to the tip of the tail itself. It moves in very long leaps"
as told by a shepherdess who, busy tending her herd of cows in a meadow, was attacked by the beast that emerged from the forest. The animal tried to bite her little girl, but fortunately the herd of cattle attacked the beast with horns, forcing it to flee and saving the girl's life. But not so lucky was another 14-year-old peasant girl named Jeanne Boulet who was mauled and bled to death a few days later, not far from the first assault. It was the first of 172 victims in three years, a case that led to the mobilization of squadrons of Dragoon knights in search of the monster, as well as wolf hunters (experts in wolf hunting) and even the curiosity of the royal court of Versailles, with the king Louis XV who at a certain point ordered censorship of the news of the victims for fear of panic among the population. Here too the phenomenon ceased spontaneously.
On the story it is possible to draw on a vast and well-documented bibliography that was written at the time of the events: the "Faithful History of the Beast of Gévaudan" by Henri Pourrat and the very detailed "History of the Beast of Gévaudan, authentic scourge of God" by Abbot Pourcher. Recently, a very interesting film was also made from these chronicles, "The Pact of the Wolves" with the stars Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci.
A similar and well documented event, even if of smaller proportions than the French one, similarly happened in Milan in 1792. The Braidense National Library located in the Brera Museum houses the original of a "journal detailing what the Ferocious beast in the Upper Milanese area from the beginning of July of the year 1792 until 18 September pp", extended by an anonymous chronicler of the time, who recounts in detail and in the picturesque Italian of the time the drama experienced by the peasants of the Milanese area grappling with this werewolf who attacked children and teenagers by the throat, tearing them to pieces with his claws.
From 5 July to 2 September, a scary-looking animal vaguely resembling a wolf killed four boys and six girls, all between 6 and 13 years of age, seriously injured another girl and attacked some adults. Here too, as in France, the Austrian government that controlled Milan announced an open hunt, with cash prizes for anyone who killed the werewolf: Cesare Beccaria was also interested in the story, who as a good Enlightenment jurist did not believe in the story of the infernal dog and he thought it was a still unknown animal.
In the end, a large wolf who fell into a trap and captured by two friars was "blamed": his embalmed body is still exhibited in the Natural History Museum of Pavia. But it is clear that the poor captured wolf has nothing to do with the phenomenon described so far.
Indeed, it is safe to say that whatever you call it, hell dog, werewolf, Chupacabras, werewolf, it is the same type of being. A vaguely anthropomorphic being (this is why human beings were accused of transforming into wolves under the influence of the Devil), hairy but not thickly, with large "vampire" canines, a stubby and at the same time elongated snout, front legs with of claws and in a certain way prehensile, hind legs massive to the point of allowing large jumps or a bipedal gait. What is it about? If today the theories are absolutely indefinite, ranging from those who claim that it is a US genetic engineering experiment that escaped from the laboratories, to those who instead associate it with UFOs, as Chupacabras have often been seen accompanied by discs or lights in the sky in operation monitoring. That is, as if the beings on board the unknown objects somehow followed the monster in his massacres...
For some the Chupacabras is a biological robot designed to collect blood and tissue samples to be used in the aliens' mysterious experiments. And it is no coincidence that Animal Mutilation, the frequent cases in which cattle carcasses and the like are found missing organs and blood, are often cited in support. Others, however, speak of multidimensional entities, due to their sudden disappearance after the massacres carried out in all parts of the world. Perhaps beings that come from the Fairy Kingdom, like those gremlins who enjoy tearing apart the engines of passenger planes flying over Ireland...
And what do we think? While their origin (or rather, where they come from and where they go after the banquets) certainly remains mysterious at the moment, it is clear that it is a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity for at least 1300 years. And so, perhaps it is time to investigate these werewolves from a serious point of view. Official science would do well to stop blaming the imaginary crossbreeding of wild stray dogs and take note that something dangerous and, dare we say, wickedly determined has been feeding on humanity and its livestock for centuries.
Exactly like what happened in the movie "Predator" ...
