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The top e-mailed story from the Los Angeles Times website today was "Mythical Chupacabra Found in Texas?"
Some of us know exactly what a chupacabra is thanks to a 1997 X-Files episode "El Mundo Gira." Sort of: It's a creature that supposedly either looks like a weird wild dog or a lizard-like alien.
First reported in Puerto Rico, there've been spottings in Mexico and the U.S. The name translates to "goat sucker," and it supposedly sucks the blood of the animals it kills, through two little puncture marks.
So the folks in Cuero, Texas, are having a field day with the roadkill chupacabra that Phylis Canion supposedly found last month. She's even begun selling $5 t-shirts declaring "2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas." Phylis has even saved the head of the creature for DNA testing and mounting on her trophy wall. (We guess there's not much else going on in Cuero, huh?)
But to really get down to solving the mystery of the chupacabra, we think we need to bring Mulder and Scully out of retirement.
Photo via Eric Gay/AP
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This mysterious animal is a dog-- a breed that goes back to the days of the Aztec empire. It's called a xoloitzcuintli, sometimes known as the "Mexican Hairless".
It's very possible that they were dumped by a backyard breeder, and reverted to feral.
You can see pictures of these dogs here;
http://images.google.com/images?q=xoloitzcuintli
Although I doubt that Phylis will be happy about having the mystery solved, what with the shirts and all...
in the picture i can't tell who the Chupacabra victim is.
It is a Xolo or Xolo mix, not a chupacabra. What a stupid woman. Geesh, one internet search would show her what she has. They are a mexican hairless breed that weighs around 40 lbs. They are a rare breed so someone is probably breeding them around there. For pics and info = http://www.xolo.com/
Whatever it is...it sure is ugly.
If you look at the front teeth you can see they arent even teeth. Compare those to the back, as you can see the front ones are highly just a chunk of Porceline from a Toilet or some such she has shoved in there, its far too white.
Its an Xolo as we all seem to know,
a Mexican dog.
www.xolo.com for a picture.
as you can see, it doesnt have the giant tooth.
also--- isnt it a crime to cut off a domestic pet's head?
This animal might not have even been a feral dog at all, just someones dog that got out and never came home.
We will start at the top.
#1 Phyllis will be very happy to have the mystery solved. She was not the first person to call her finds "chupacabras", but went with it as everyone else kept telling her that is what it was.
#2 Don't quit your day job. There are too many comedians out of work already.
#3 Calling someone stupid when you do not know all the facts is just plain ignorant. DNA testing has been done on the two animals in Canion's possession and the closest match is coyote, BUT... pay attention now....Chimpanzee and human DNA are a closer match than the DNA of coyotes and the Cuero animals. DNA testing has been performed by TSU and UC-Davis and both results agree with each other. We are in the process of obtaining DNA from a Xolo and will see if it is a direct match to the Cuero animals. There is a very strong resemblance.
#4 No one will argue with you on that point. The Cuero animal is ugly to most people.
#5 I have looked at the front teeth and they are just that--teeth. No one stuck any porcelain in the creatures mouth.
It may or may not be an Xolo--you do not know. we will find out.
Maybe a Peruvian dog-- do more research.
According to the FCI breed standard, the most important aspect of its appearance is its hairlessness. The dog may have short hair on top of its head, on its feet, and on the tip of its tail. In Peru, breeders tend to prefer completely hairless dogs. The full-coated variety is disqualified from conformation showing. The color of skin can be chocolate-brown, elephant grey, copper, or mottled. They can be totally one color or one color with tongue pink spots. Albinism is not allowed. The eye color is linked to the skin color. It's always brown, but dogs with light colors can have clearer eyes than darker-skinned dogs. There are 3 breeds of Peruvian Hairless Dogs :
Small (or pequeño), 25 to 40 cm (10 to 16 inches)
Medium (or medio), 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20 inches)
Large (or grande), 50 to 65 cm (20 to 26 inches)
The smallest weighs from 4 kg (9 lb) and the largest up to 25 kg (55 lb).
The dogs should be slim and elegant, with the impression of force and harmony, without being coarse.
The ears should be candle-flame shaped and erect with the possibility to lay flat.
Proportions of height (at withers) to length (withers to base of tail) are 1:1.
Genetics and health
The genes that cause hairlessness also result in the breed often having fewer teeth than other breeds, mostly lacking molars and premolars.
One theory is that hairlessness is dominant-lethal, which means that homozygotic hairlessness doesn't exist. This results in a birthrate of 2:1, hairless : coated. However, some breeders don't show this result, having a birthrate between 2:1 and 8:1. According to Hans Räber "Enzyklopädie der Rassehunde" T.I[1] 25% of the population is born coated.
AKC-type breed standards are not compatible with the genetics of hairlessness in dogs, but FCI rules are. Some breeders think that interbreeding with coated (Peruvian) dogs is required to maintain functional teeth and nervous system health in subsequent generations. They say that breeding of hairless with hairless (and common but unacknowledged culling of hairy pups from litters to maintain a "pure" image) leads to short-lived dogs with serious health problems. However, other breeders think the opposite and are doing well, too. Breeding hairless to hairless increases the chance of congenital defects in litters.[citation needed]
Like all breeds there are some health problems. There include IBD, seizures, stroke, and skin lesions. They are very sensitive to toxins and care should be taken in use of insecticides. Insecticides are absorbed through the skin and body fat keeps these toxins from entering the liver too quickly. Since these dogs have very low body fat toxins are absorbed too quickly and cause severe damage to the nervous system and GI tract.
It is NOT a crime to cut off the head of a domestic dog's cadaver. It is done all the time to examine an animal suspected to have had rabies.
This was most likely NOT someone's dog that escaped from the back yard. There have been three found as roadkill and on August 8,2008 a DeWitt county deputy followed one as it ran down the road. He videotaped the animal with his onboard cam. See the CNN report here
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2008/08/12/pkg.tx.chupucabra.kens
Only closed minds accept without question the first answer they hear.
Oops! I forgot something for comment #1
How much money do you think someone can make selling shirts for $5 each? That is almost what they cost her. The only reason they are sold at all is due to the overwhelming requests from people who saw the shirts worn by her family and friends. There are no huge profits being made from the shirts and in fact, many shirts get donated to schools all over the world. Why? Because the minds and imaginations of children have been stimulated by the news of the "chupacabra". Teachers write and tell of their students wanting to write papers and stories about the "chupacabra". The shirts are donated to the classes as awards for writing the best or most imaginative or most thought provoking paper. See? It does not matter what this creature may prove out to be. The fact remains,it has had a positive effect on people all over the world.