One of the most mysterious creatures of Latino popular culture is the infamous "Chupacabras," an alleged animal capable of sucking the blood of its prey, usually chicken and cattle.
The Science Channel recently announced that it was launching an investigation on the mysterious animal, which many experts consider a "mythical creature." The channel's investigation was aired in a special show on Wednesday, August 29 at 9 p.m.
Texas-based nutritionist Phylis Canion found the remains of a strange creature on the side of a highway close to her ranch in Cuero, Texas in 2007, when she was trying to find out what kind of animal was killing the chickens in her ranch.
"Every time we found a dead chicken, we found it with its throat slit," explained Canion during the Science Channel's "Unexplained Files." Before finding the animal's carcass on the highway, Canion's ranch had suffered the loss of 28 chickens. The animal's body didn't look like any animal Canion had ever seen before. It weighed about 40 pounds, had blue eyes and had skin like an elephant's, rugged and hairless.
The creature confused Canion, since it seemed to drain the blood of the animals instead of eating them, or dragging them like other predators, which prompted the woman to think this was done by the mythical "chupacabras."
"We know the animal that killed the chicken licked its blood," Canion told The Huffington Post. "It slits their throat. Seems it likes the taste of blood, which is interesting, because the only animal that sucks blood is the bat," she pointed out.
However, wildlife officers in Texas believe that the animal is a dog with scabbies, which then caused Canion to undertake a vast investigation by questioning their conclusion.
According to the HuffPost, numerous DNA tests suggest that the animal is mix between a coyote on its mother's side and a Mexican wolf on its father's side, but Canion argues that there are other factors which make this an inaccurate description.
The animal's body was taken to a taxidermist and is now exhibited in her Texas ranch, being the only "blue dog" to be captured. However, there have been numerous sightings of it in Texas and southern Oklahoma, according to the HuffPost.