Skid Roche

Texas Chupacabra is a Pit Bull in a Cape
Originally uploaded by Thomas Roche

This bizarre picture is the best thing about this short Scientific American article, in which Texas biologist Scott Henke says the recent Chupacabra from Cuero, Texas is of a pit bull or a mutt. But some of the dude’s other comments are also interesting given that it is a kind of weird looking (but still unquestionably doggy) dog:

‘Since coyotes run a little more gracefully, it’s likely to be a bull mastiff or pit bull, or perhaps just a mutt. ‘Dogs just roaming and being stray is quite a problem in southern Texas,’ Henke says. ‘The probability of it being a mixed breed dog is higher than anything else.”

‘He notes that the original chupacabra findings—headless goats with drained blood—turned out to be the work of a Mexican cult. And the chupacabra’s other hallmark—not eating the livestock it kills—is also a feral dog favorite. ‘Feral dogs are much more of a problem than coyotes for losing livestock like goats,’ he says. ‘Especially if the animal is killed and the throat’s bit. A coyote will eat the meat too, if they’re going to go to the effort to kill it. If they’re just torn up, it’s most likely a feral dog.”

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