WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We take complex topics, 00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:05.780 dig through the information, and pull out the 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:08.199 key insights for you. That's the mission. And 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:10.839 today, well, we're stepping into a pretty strained 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:14.720 world. Cryptozoology, folklore. And a bit of 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.320 forensic science too, actually. Yeah, we're tracking 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.839 a creature that basically exploded onto the scene, 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:23.769 became a global name almost overnight. The Chupacabra. 00:00:23.789 --> 00:00:26.750 It really is like the ultimate modern cryptid, 00:00:26.750 --> 00:00:29.449 isn't it? How so? Well, think about Bigfoot or 00:00:29.449 --> 00:00:32.869 Loch Ness. Those stories are old. Lots of folklore, 00:00:33.009 --> 00:00:35.969 blurry photos, right? Decades, centuries even. 00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:38.789 The Chupacabra, though, it burst out in the mid 00:00:38.789 --> 00:00:41.810 1990s and it spread entirely through, you know, 00:00:41.829 --> 00:00:45.960 modern media. TV, news, eventually the internet. 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.439 It's terrifying if you're a farmer, obviously. 00:00:47.619 --> 00:00:50.100 Absolutely. But for us, looking back, it's just 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:52.340 this perfect case study. How do these urban legends 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:54.579 actually start? How do they get shaped by collective 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:57.100 anxiety? And how does the media keep them going? 00:00:57.320 --> 00:00:59.299 Exactly. It's all there. And the name itself 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:02.679 tells you a lot, right? Chupacabra. Or is it 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:05.920 Chupacabras? I hear both. Technically, Chupacabras 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:08.480 is plural in Spanish, which is where it comes 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.980 from. But honestly, both get used pretty interchangeably 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:15.780 now. Okay. And it means? It's dead literal. Chupa 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.719 that sucks in Spanish. Okay. And Cabra's goats. 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:22.180 The goat sucker. Yep. The goat sucker. And that 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:25.739 name, it just nails the core terrifying claim 00:01:25.739 --> 00:01:28.359 of the whole legend. Oh, Jesus. That this thing 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:30.900 isn't just a predator killing livestock. It's 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:35.640 supposedly vampiric. It drains its victims completely 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.980 of blood. Right. Okay. So that's our mission 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:40.719 for this deep dive, then. We want to really get 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:42.900 into it, track it back to the very beginning, 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:47.519 those first weird livestock killings in the Caribbean. 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:49.579 Then look at the descriptions, because they're 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:51.359 all over the place, aren't they? Totally contradictory, 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:53.480 yeah. We need to unpack that. And then the big 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:55.579 part, apply to science. You know, forensics, 00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:58.760 zoology, what does the evidence actually say? 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.640 Because that's what... ultimately unravels the 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:03.400 whole thing. Pretty much. By the end of this, 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:06.000 you'll have the full story. The complete picture 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.379 of the goat sucker legend. All right, let's start 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:11.000 at the beginning. But maybe not 1995. You mentioned 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.180 it goes back further. Yeah, to really get the 00:02:13.180 --> 00:02:15.139 origin, you kind of have to rewind another 20 00:02:15.139 --> 00:02:17.719 years. Before the name, before the hype. Where 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:21.620 are we going? Back to 1975. Mocha, Puerto Rico. 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.780 And a series of events they called El Vampiro 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:26.960 de Mocha. The Vampire of Mocha. Okay. This is 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.469 like the shadow precursor. The first hints of 00:02:30.469 --> 00:02:34.409 this really specific, really bizarre pattern 00:02:34.409 --> 00:02:37.409 of attacks on livestock. In Mocha, mid -70s. 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:40.270 Exactly. And the attacks were so strange, so 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:42.990 brutal, that people couldn't explain them normally. 00:02:43.150 --> 00:02:45.870 They didn't think, oh, it's a wild dog or, you 00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:48.349 know, a big cat. Yeah. What did they think? Their 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:51.090 first thought, interestingly, was much darker. 00:02:51.289 --> 00:02:55.169 They suspected a satanic cult. Wow. Ritual sacrifice. 00:02:55.349 --> 00:02:57.590 That was the theory, because of how the animals 00:02:57.590 --> 00:02:59.900 were killed. Ah. Okay, so it wasn't just dead 00:02:59.900 --> 00:03:03.139 animals. No. If, like, a coyote gets a sheep, 00:03:03.219 --> 00:03:05.259 right, there's usually signs of a struggle, trauma, 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.020 maybe parts are eaten. Makes sense. But in Mocha, 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:09.919 and later across the island, the signature was 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:12.680 consistent. The animals were reportedly bled 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:15.419 dry. Completely dry. That was the claim. And 00:03:15.419 --> 00:03:19.139 through these tiny, almost surgical -looking 00:03:19.139 --> 00:03:24.120 circular holes, incisions. Not like bite marks. 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:26.139 Didn't look like a normal kill at all. Looked 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:30.849 precise, almost. Alien, not natural. And that 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:33.150 specific detail, the blood drain, the small holes, 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:35.669 that's what kept the mystery going. For two decades, 00:03:35.870 --> 00:03:37.770 yeah. It was just this unexplained phenomenon 00:03:37.770 --> 00:03:41.039 bubbling under the surface. Then boom. 1995, 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:44.319 it just exploded. The attacks ramped up. Dramatically. 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:46.460 And that's when the creature really got its identity. 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:49.900 So tell us about that. The official launch, you 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:52.300 could call it. Where and when did it become the 00:03:52.300 --> 00:03:55.659 chupacabra story? March 1995. Again, Puerto Rico. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:57.939 Different location this time. Eight sheep were 00:03:57.939 --> 00:04:00.620 found dead. Okay. And again, very specific damage. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:03.080 Not random wounds. Each one had three distinct 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:05.979 puncture wounds in the chest area. Three wounds. 00:04:06.099 --> 00:04:08.719 And the claim, once again. Completely drained 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.080 of blood. So this wasn't just a few random deaths 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.419 anymore. It was a pattern and it was escalating. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:15.460 Big time. It became a real crisis, especially 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:17.660 for farmers, for the agricultural community there. 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:20.160 And this is where the eyewitness comes in. The 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:22.759 one who gave it a face. Exactly. Fast forward 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:25.180 a few months to August 95. The attacks really 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:27.420 zeroed in on this town called Canovanus. And 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:30.379 the numbers were just staggering. Panic set in. 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.279 Some reports claimed up to 150 farm animals and 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:36.759 pets were killed just in that one month. 150. 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:40.860 It's total mass hysteria. And right in the middle 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:43.879 of all that fear, the key eyewitness steps forward. 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.879 Madeline Tolentino. She saw it. She claims she 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.870 did. And her description. Well, that became the 00:04:50.870 --> 00:04:53.610 legend. The reptilian creature, spines down its 00:04:53.610 --> 00:04:56.230 back, hopping like a kangaroo. That visual cemented 00:04:56.230 --> 00:04:58.829 it. It absolutely did. It took these terrifying 00:04:58.829 --> 00:05:01.470 events, these dead animals, and gave them this 00:05:01.470 --> 00:05:04.569 incredibly scary visual form. It pushed the whole 00:05:04.569 --> 00:05:07.430 thing beyond just weird livestock killings into 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:10.629 sci -fi horror territory. Okay, so you got the 00:05:10.629 --> 00:05:12.750 attacks, you got the visual, but it needed a 00:05:12.750 --> 00:05:14.949 name, something catchy. It got one almost immediately, 00:05:15.050 --> 00:05:17.420 and the credit for that bit of, well... Branding 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:19.819 genius. Who was it? A Puerto Rican comedian and 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.120 entrepreneur named Silverio Perez. A comedian? 00:05:22.259 --> 00:05:24.819 Yeah, he was also a radio DJ in San Juan at the 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:28.079 time. And when these attacks were just dominating 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:31.259 the news in 95, he's the one who apparently coined 00:05:31.259 --> 00:05:34.980 the term chupacabras on air. It was clever, right? 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.779 Descriptive, memorable, easy to say. Yeah, goat 00:05:39.779 --> 00:05:42.920 sucker. It sticks. Totally. It became the perfect 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:45.060 cultural shorthand. People weren't talking about 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:46.879 those weird vampire killings anymore. They were 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:48.959 talking about the chupacabra. And what's really 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:52.079 wild, especially compared to older myths, is 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:54.560 how fast this thing spread. Oh, instantly. It 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:56.459 wasn't contained to Puerto Rico at all. And did 00:05:56.459 --> 00:05:58.740 it travel so quickly? Well, international media 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:01.399 picked it up fast. And crucially, Spanish language 00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:04.240 media connections across Latin America. So after 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:06.639 Puerto Rico. Reports just started flooding in. 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:09.560 Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Panama, the Dominican 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:12.779 Republic. You name it. So people elsewhere were 00:06:12.779 --> 00:06:15.459 having similar experiences. Or they just heard 00:06:15.459 --> 00:06:17.519 the story. Probably a bit of both. People hearing 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:19.779 the news reports, maybe they'd already had some 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:22.459 unexplained livestock deaths themselves. And 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:25.420 suddenly they had a name for it. Exactly. They 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:27.959 had a name, a description for their own local 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.170 mystery. The Chupacabra label just got slapped 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:33.230 onto it. And it moved north, too, into the U 00:06:33.230 --> 00:06:35.529 .S. Oh, absolutely. It crossed the border big 00:06:35.529 --> 00:06:38.470 time. The southwestern U .S. became a real hotspot 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:41.410 for sightings. Texas, Arizona, places like that. 00:06:41.509 --> 00:06:44.329 Yep. Though, weirdly, reports have popped up 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:47.269 as far away as Maine. Maine. Seriously. Yeah. 00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:53.490 And even crazier, the folklore, it went way beyond 00:06:53.490 --> 00:06:56.730 the Americas. There were reports, alleged sightings, 00:06:56.730 --> 00:07:00.050 related attacks. in Russia, the Philippines. 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:02.149 How does that even happen? It just shows you 00:07:02.149 --> 00:07:04.689 the power of a really strong, simple narrative, 00:07:04.829 --> 00:07:07.089 right? This idea of the vampire monster. It can 00:07:07.089 --> 00:07:09.829 go global way faster than any real animal could 00:07:09.829 --> 00:07:12.250 possibly migrate. OK, so it originates, gets 00:07:12.250 --> 00:07:14.709 a name, spreads like wildfire. Yeah. But you 00:07:14.709 --> 00:07:16.029 mentioned the descriptions are contradictory. 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:19.060 Massively so. And this is really key. If you 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:20.959 dig into all the reports, all the eyewitness 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.420 accounts, the chupacabra isn't one thing. It's 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:25.259 basically two completely different creatures. 00:07:25.420 --> 00:07:27.259 Depends where you are. That variation is important. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.100 It's crucial. It's actually the key to understanding 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:33.220 why the whole thing eventually gets, you know, 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:35.819 debunked scientifically. The descriptions just 00:07:35.819 --> 00:07:38.399 don't match up. They split really neatly into 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:40.899 two dominant types. Mutually exclusive types, 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:42.779 really. All right. Let's break them down. Type 00:07:42.779 --> 00:07:44.819 one first. That's the original, right? The Puerto 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:47.730 Rican one. Yeah. The one Madeline Tolentino described 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:52.269 back in 95. This is the reptilian or alien cryptid, 00:07:52.290 --> 00:07:54.689 mostly reported in Puerto Rico and other parts 00:07:54.689 --> 00:07:56.410 of Latin America. OK, what does that one look 00:07:56.410 --> 00:07:58.870 like? It's definitely not a dog or anything familiar 00:07:58.870 --> 00:08:02.240 like that. It's described as like. A heavy animal, 00:08:02.459 --> 00:08:05.920 maybe the size of a small bear, standing three 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:08.540 to four feet tall. So about a meter, meter and 00:08:08.540 --> 00:08:11.300 a half high? Roughly, yeah. And the really distinct 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:14.379 features are the skin and how it moves. Witnesses 00:08:14.379 --> 00:08:17.439 talked about thick, leathery skin, or sometimes 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.500 scaly, often greenish gray, giving it that real 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:23.160 reptilian or even alien vibe. And the classic 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:25.439 feature, the thing everyone pictures. The spines. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:29.560 Gotta be the spines. A big, obvious, scary row 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:32.470 of sharp... Quills or spines. Running all the 00:08:32.470 --> 00:08:33.929 way from the neck or the back of the head down 00:08:33.929 --> 00:08:35.929 to the base of the tail. Right. And movement 00:08:35.929 --> 00:08:38.809 wise. It didn't walk on four legs. It was described 00:08:38.809 --> 00:08:41.169 as standing upright. Moving with this kind of 00:08:41.169 --> 00:08:45.070 hopping gait. Like a kangaroo. A spiky reptilian 00:08:45.070 --> 00:08:47.429 kangaroo. Pretty much. And you see those specific 00:08:47.429 --> 00:08:50.149 details pop up again in reports from places like 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:52.929 Chile and Argentina later on. That's the monster 00:08:52.929 --> 00:08:54.990 that terrified the Caribbean. Okay. Hold on. 00:08:55.259 --> 00:08:59.460 A three to four foot tall, spiky, hopping reptile 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:02.500 alien. Yeah. That sounds absolutely nothing like 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:04.379 the creature people started reporting just a 00:09:04.379 --> 00:09:07.519 few years later in, say, Texas. Exactly. That's 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:09.679 the point. As the legend moved north, especially 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:11.700 into northern Mexico and the U .S. southwest, 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.799 starting around the early 2000s, the description 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:16.580 just completely flipped. And to type two? And 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:18.519 to type two, the dog -like predator. And that 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:21.059 became the main image in North America. So when 00:09:21.059 --> 00:09:23.039 someone in Arizona said they saw a chupacabra, 00:09:23.139 --> 00:09:25.809 what were they seeing? Or describing. They were 00:09:25.809 --> 00:09:27.210 describing something that looked kind of like 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:31.250 a dog or a coyote, but wrong. Horribly wrong. 00:09:31.309 --> 00:09:35.269 Like some weird, mutated wild dog. How so? What 00:09:35.269 --> 00:09:37.389 were the features? The key things here all point 00:09:37.389 --> 00:09:39.870 towards, well, severe illness. It's described 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:42.590 as being mostly hairless. Hairless. Yeah, maybe 00:09:42.590 --> 00:09:45.429 just some patches of fur. The skin is often described 00:09:45.429 --> 00:09:49.090 as thickened, leathery, maybe crusty. Okay. It's 00:09:49.090 --> 00:09:51.230 got a really pronounced spinal ridge. You can 00:09:51.230 --> 00:09:53.750 see the vertebrae sticking up. The eye sockets 00:09:53.750 --> 00:09:57.649 look unusually deep or pronounced. Big, visible 00:09:57.649 --> 00:10:01.070 fangs and claws. So it looks sick. Yeah. Disease. 00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:04.210 It looks like a biological horror, right? Much 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:07.009 more than some sci -fi monster from space. It 00:10:07.009 --> 00:10:11.250 looks aggressive, mangy, just awful. Okay, so 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:12.870 two completely different creatures. One's an 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.210 alien kangaroo, one's a messed up dog. Yep. But 00:10:15.210 --> 00:10:17.509 they're linked by this one single terrifying 00:10:17.509 --> 00:10:21.080 thing. The way they attack. The ammo. The vampiric 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:23.159 ammo. That's the common thread. And that method 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:25.139 is what supposedly makes a chupacabra different 00:10:25.139 --> 00:10:27.379 from any normal predator we know about. Right. 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:30.039 A normal predator kills to eat. Or maybe drags 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:32.879 the kill away. But with the chupacabra, the central 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:36.320 scary claim is it drains all the blood. All of 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.340 it. That's the story. Sometimes even takes organs, 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.720 but leaves the rest of the carcass basically 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:44.440 untouched. No signs of feeding on the meat. And 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:46.639 the wounds themselves. Always described as precise, 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.080 right? Almost surgical. Yeah, that gets emphasized 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.519 a lot. Usually one or two holes, or most famously, 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.399 three puncture wounds. The triangle. Often described 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:57.879 as being in a triangle pattern pointing downwards, 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.120 usually neck or chest. And that precision, plus 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:03.799 the lack of blood at the scene, plus no eating 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:06.340 the body. That's what cemented the idea. wasn't 00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:08.419 just a dumb animal it was something intelligent 00:11:08.419 --> 00:11:11.120 maybe doing something weird motivated purely 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:13.840 by blood that's the absolute core of the whole 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:15.539 legend okay this is where we need to bring in 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:17.419 the investigation the science put this whole 00:11:17.419 --> 00:11:19.159 thing under the microscope right we've got two 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:22.980 monsters an alien one a diseased dog one both 00:11:22.980 --> 00:11:26.500 supposedly vampires let's start with type one 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:30.039 the original the spiky hopping reptile the og 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:33.080 chupacabra yeah if we look at the work benjamin 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:36.440 radford did digging into this, that whole visual 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:39.799 description just kind of collapses, doesn't it? 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:42.919 It collapses spectacularly, yeah. Radford's investigation 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:45.480 is probably one of the best examples of how modern 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:48.480 folklore can actually be created. It's stunning, 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:50.940 really. What did he find? He basically concluded 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:53.679 that the entire visual description, the one from 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.700 the key eyewitness, Madeline Tolentino, wasn't 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:58.940 based on anything she actually saw in real life. 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:01.730 It was directly copied from a movie monster. 00:12:02.009 --> 00:12:05.750 A movie? Which one? The sci -fi horror film Species. 00:12:05.909 --> 00:12:08.409 Species. Didn't that come out in 1995? Exactly. 00:12:08.429 --> 00:12:11.509 The very same year as the main Puerto Rican attacks 00:12:11.509 --> 00:12:14.309 and Tolentino's sighting, the timing is perfect. 00:12:14.350 --> 00:12:16.590 And the creature in that movie, Syl, wasn't it? 00:12:16.669 --> 00:12:19.029 Yep, the alien Syl. And if you look at Syl's 00:12:19.029 --> 00:12:22.970 design, bipedal, roughly human -sized but kind 00:12:22.970 --> 00:12:26.409 of hunched, and crucially, that defining row 00:12:26.409 --> 00:12:28.919 of spines down the back. It was almost identical 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:31.120 to Tolentino's description of the chupacabra. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.139 The movie was brand new. It was out there in 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:35.379 the culture. Is there direct evidence linking 00:12:35.379 --> 00:12:38.399 her sighting to the movie? Well, Radford uncovered 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:41.220 a reported statement from Tolentino herself that's 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:43.659 pretty damning. What did she say? She reportedly 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:47.000 said about what she saw, it was a creature that 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.600 looked like the chupacabra with spines on its 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:53.000 back and all. And then she added, The resemblance 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.620 to the chupacabra was really impressive. Wait, 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:58.440 she said the thing she saw resembled the chupacabra. 00:12:58.500 --> 00:13:00.139 Isn't she the one who described the chupacabra 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:02.240 in the first place? That's the key point Radford 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:05.340 makes. It seems she saw the movie, Species, saw 00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:08.340 the creature Syl, and then when she saw something, 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:10.799 or thought she saw something, during that period 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:14.360 of panic in Canovanas, her brain basically mapped 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:16.860 the movie monster onto the real world event. 00:13:17.179 --> 00:13:19.460 She wasn't describing an unknown creature. She 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:21.360 was saying the unknown creature looked like the 00:13:21.389 --> 00:13:23.769 monster she'd just seen on screen so the implication 00:13:23.769 --> 00:13:27.750 is huge the iconic image the one that scared 00:13:27.750 --> 00:13:31.669 people across continents it's basically fan art 00:13:31.669 --> 00:13:34.490 right based on a movie it's more than that it's 00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:38.429 like a powerful case of confirmation bias maybe 00:13:38.429 --> 00:13:41.549 even misremembering radford found evidence suggesting 00:13:41.549 --> 00:13:43.610 tolentino came to genuinely believe that the 00:13:43.610 --> 00:13:45.870 events and the creature from species were actually 00:13:45.870 --> 00:13:48.850 happening for real in puerto rico wow so yeah 00:13:49.309 --> 00:13:51.789 When your main original eyewitness bases the 00:13:51.789 --> 00:13:54.730 description on a Hollywood alien, it completely 00:13:54.730 --> 00:13:57.149 undermines the idea of the reptilian chupacabra 00:13:57.149 --> 00:13:59.970 being a real animal. The visual identity wasn't 00:13:59.970 --> 00:14:02.789 born from zoology. It was born from cinema. Okay. 00:14:03.009 --> 00:14:05.169 That deals a major blow to Type 1's appearance. 00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:08.269 But what about the shared trait, the core of 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.009 the legend, the vampirism? Right. Even if the 00:14:11.009 --> 00:14:12.870 alien look is out, we still have this claim. 00:14:13.029 --> 00:14:15.570 Animals being bled dry. That needs evidence. 00:14:15.929 --> 00:14:18.740 Forensic evidence. And did they find any? When 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:20.700 they actually examined the carcasses. This is 00:14:20.700 --> 00:14:23.059 where pathology comes in. And the answer is pretty 00:14:23.059 --> 00:14:26.419 definitive. That central claim, total blood drain, 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:29.120 exsanguination, it sounds dramatic, and it is 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.259 testable. Through a necropsy. Exactly. A necropsy, 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:34.059 an animal autopsy is the only way to know for 00:14:34.059 --> 00:14:36.159 sure. You examine the blood vessels, the organs. 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:40.009 Is the blood volume actually close to zero? And 00:14:40.009 --> 00:14:42.370 the reports of blood sucking were simply never 00:14:42.370 --> 00:14:46.169 confirmed by necropsy. Not once. So when vets 00:14:46.169 --> 00:14:49.029 actually looked inside... They didn't find animals 00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:51.289 that had been magically drained dry. No known 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:54.190 predator does that. And no natural process makes 00:14:54.190 --> 00:14:56.230 it happen after death like that. There was a 00:14:56.230 --> 00:14:58.250 specific vet involved in Puerto Rico during the 00:14:58.250 --> 00:15:01.039 panic, wasn't there? Dr. Dave Morales, yeah. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.100 He worked for the Department of Agriculture and 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:05.440 actually examined a large number of the alleged 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:08.840 victims. Over 300 reported victims in Puerto 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:11.080 Rico. Okay, that's a significant sample size. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:14.700 Absolutely. And his conclusion was clear. The 00:15:14.700 --> 00:15:17.500 animals had not been bled dry. So what killed 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:19.980 them? He determined the cause of death was usually 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:22.039 things like internal bleeding from the wounds 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:25.899 or circulatory shock, normal trauma from an attack. 00:15:26.490 --> 00:15:29.629 not some mysterious total blood extraction. So 00:15:29.629 --> 00:15:32.730 the whole vampire angle was just sensationalism, 00:15:32.809 --> 00:15:35.610 misinterpretation. It seems like it. A scary 00:15:35.610 --> 00:15:37.850 narrative that fit the weirdness of the situation 00:15:37.850 --> 00:15:40.250 but wasn't actually supported by the physical 00:15:40.250 --> 00:15:45.190 evidence. Okay, so type one, alien look, comes 00:15:45.190 --> 00:15:47.730 from a movie, blood draining isn't real. That 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:51.399 leaves type two, the dog -like one. The U .S. 00:15:51.419 --> 00:15:53.740 Southwest Chupacabra. The mangy dog version. 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:56.000 This one at least looks like a real animal, albeit 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.480 a horrifying one. What's the scientific take 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:00.820 on that creature? This brings us neatly to the 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:03.399 mange hypothesis. And this is pretty much the 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.360 accepted scientific explanation for the vast 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:08.720 majority, if not all, of those U .S. sightings. 00:16:09.019 --> 00:16:11.830 Mange, like... the skin disease dogs get exactly 00:16:11.830 --> 00:16:15.210 specifically sarcoptic mange there's a biologist 00:16:15.210 --> 00:16:16.929 barry o 'connor from the university of michigan 00:16:16.929 --> 00:16:19.590 who studied this back in 2010 and his conclusion 00:16:19.590 --> 00:16:22.070 his conclusion was that when people in texas 00:16:22.070 --> 00:16:24.570 or arizona were reporting chupacabras what they 00:16:24.570 --> 00:16:26.750 were actually seeing were coyotes or sometimes 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:29.549 domestic dogs but animals suffering from a really 00:16:29.549 --> 00:16:32.330 really severe infection of this parasite The 00:16:32.330 --> 00:16:35.230 mite sarcoptes scabia. That's the one. It causes 00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:37.429 sarcoptic mange. What does that mite do to an 00:16:37.429 --> 00:16:39.629 animal to make it look like that? Like the descriptions. 00:16:40.250 --> 00:16:42.149 It's pretty horrific, especially when it gets 00:16:42.149 --> 00:16:46.129 advanced. The mites burrow under the skin, causes 00:16:46.129 --> 00:16:48.690 intense itching. The animal just scratches and 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.350 scratches itself raw. Leading to hair loss. Massive 00:16:51.350 --> 00:16:54.629 hair loss. That explains the mostly hairless 00:16:54.629 --> 00:16:56.789 look, which is so key to the type 2 description. 00:16:57.149 --> 00:16:59.590 And it doesn't stop there. No. The skin itself 00:16:59.590 --> 00:17:02.629 reacts. It thickens up dramatically, gets crusty, 00:17:02.629 --> 00:17:06.029 scaly, often turns this sort of dark grayish 00:17:06.029 --> 00:17:08.910 color. Matching the leathery or strange thick 00:17:08.910 --> 00:17:12.210 skin. Perfectly. So all those monster features, 00:17:12.369 --> 00:17:14.589 the deep set eyes, the visible spine, the weird 00:17:14.589 --> 00:17:17.809 skin, they're just symptoms. They're all symptoms 00:17:17.809 --> 00:17:20.819 of advanced mange. The hair loss makes the skeleton 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:23.759 underneath way more obvious. You see the spinal 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:25.940 ridge clearly. The bones of the skull around 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.259 the eyes look more prominent, more sunken. It 00:17:28.259 --> 00:17:30.420 gives them that gaunt, almost demonic appearance. 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:33.380 Like something undead. Exactly. And add to that, 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:35.720 these severely infected animals often have secondary 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:38.099 skin infections, which can create a really foul 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:41.940 rank odor. So imagine seeing this hairless, bony, 00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:45.880 weird skin, stinking creature. You can see why 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:47.220 someone might think they're seeing something 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:50.160 totally unnatural, a monster. Okay, the appearance 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:53.119 makes sense now. It's a sick coyote. But what 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:56.359 about the behavior? Why are these mangy coyotes 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.519 attacking livestock? And why the weird killing 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.859 pattern, killing but not eating? That also comes 00:18:02.859 --> 00:18:05.500 back to the disease. Think about a healthy coyote. 00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:07.839 It's fast. It's got stamina. It can hunt down 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:10.730 quick prey like rabbits or deer. Right. But an 00:18:10.730 --> 00:18:13.910 animal with severe mane, it's incredibly weak. 00:18:14.069 --> 00:18:16.029 It's probably in constant pain, dealing with 00:18:16.029 --> 00:18:19.009 infections, just totally debilitated. It's struggling 00:18:19.009 --> 00:18:21.730 just to survive. So it can't hunt properly. No 00:18:21.730 --> 00:18:24.309 way. It can't chase down the usual wild prey. 00:18:24.470 --> 00:18:26.829 So what does it do? It goes for the easiest possible 00:18:26.829 --> 00:18:30.589 meal. Livestock, goats, sheep. Chickens, things 00:18:30.589 --> 00:18:33.470 in pens. Exactly. They're relatively slow, contained, 00:18:33.710 --> 00:18:36.089 easy to corner and kill compared to a healthy 00:18:36.089 --> 00:18:38.029 deer. It explains why these attacks suddenly 00:18:38.029 --> 00:18:40.910 focus on farms. It's desperation hunting. Okay, 00:18:40.970 --> 00:18:42.750 that makes sense. But what about the puncture 00:18:42.750 --> 00:18:46.109 wounds? The legend emphasizes those two or three 00:18:46.109 --> 00:18:48.970 precise holes. How does a sick coyote explain 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:51.230 that? Well, two puncture holes. That's completely 00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:54.829 standard for any canine attack. The teeth? Yep. 00:18:54.990 --> 00:18:58.400 The upper and lower canine teeth. When a dog 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.940 or coyote bites down, especially on the neck 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:03.299 or throat, to subdue prey, that's the damage 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.259 you expect to see. Two distinct holes. But the 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:09.339 stories often mention three holes. We're talking 00:19:09.339 --> 00:19:11.680 about how surgical it looks. The surgical precision 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.039 idea is likely psychological, you know. In a 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:17.019 stressful sighting, maybe you only register the 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:19.900 deepest runes, the canine punctures. And the 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:22.630 third hole. Could be anything. A scrape, another 00:19:22.630 --> 00:19:24.930 bite mark from a different angle, damage from 00:19:24.930 --> 00:19:27.809 dragging the animal, or maybe just misinterpretation 00:19:27.809 --> 00:19:30.410 in the panic. The crucial thing is, when they've 00:19:30.410 --> 00:19:32.609 actually recovered carcasses in the U .S. and 00:19:32.609 --> 00:19:35.349 done DNA testing on saliva from bite wounds, 00:19:35.470 --> 00:19:39.009 it consistently comes back as coyote or dog DNA, 00:19:39.130 --> 00:19:41.930 not some unknown creature. Okay, one last piece 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:45.000 then. Why leave the carcass uneaten? If they're 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.839 so desperate for food, that fuels the they -only 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.180 -want -the -blood idea. That happens more often 00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:52.000 than you'd think, even with healthy predators 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.059 sometimes. It's often called surplus killing, 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:56.359 or it could just be an interrupted attack. How 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:00.119 so? A sick, weak coyote might manage to attack 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:03.400 and injure, say, a goat. But then maybe it gets 00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:06.400 spooked, a light comes on, a dog barks, a person 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:09.099 yells, it runs off immediately. Abandons the 00:20:09.099 --> 00:20:12.559 kill. Right. Or maybe the animal is just so weak 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.359 from the mange, it literally doesn't have the 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:16.299 energy left to tear through the hide and start 00:20:16.299 --> 00:20:18.900 feeding after the initial kill bite. So the prey 00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:21.440 dies later. Yeah, the victim dies from the trauma, 00:20:21.579 --> 00:20:24.720 the internal bleeding, the shock. But the body 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:27.019 is left looking mostly untouched, except for 00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:29.480 those canine puncture wounds. It looks like it 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:32.039 was just killed for blood, but the explanation 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:35.079 is much more mundane. Wow. Okay. So the science 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:37.759 really does seem to dismantle both versions pretty 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:40.079 effectively. It provides very plausible evidence 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:42.579 -based explanations, yeah. The alien is a movie 00:20:42.579 --> 00:20:46.480 mix -up. The dog is a sick coyote. But the whole 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:49.740 phenomenon, the idea of the chupacabra, feels 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:53.460 like it's about more than just... Mistaken identity, 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:55.779 right? There's a cultural anxiety there. Definitely. 00:20:55.819 --> 00:20:57.660 And if you look at the environmental context, 00:20:57.759 --> 00:20:59.900 especially for the start of the legend, the timing 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.299 is really suggestive. Remember the first big 00:21:02.299 --> 00:21:05.960 wave, Puerto Rico, late 95, and then Mexico in 00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:08.980 96 when reports really took off there. Both of 00:21:08.980 --> 00:21:11.339 those periods either happened during or right 00:21:11.339 --> 00:21:14.220 after major droughts in those regions. Ah, drought. 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:16.799 That puts pressure on everything. Everything. 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:20.700 Water dries up. Plants die. The animals that 00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:22.880 eat plants, the usual prey for predators, they 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:25.019 die off or move away. Those predators get best 00:21:25.019 --> 00:21:27.380 prey. Exactly. It creates this intense competition. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:30.460 Hungry predators, like coyotes, are pushed out 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:32.819 of their normal areas, closer to humans, closer 00:21:32.819 --> 00:21:36.160 to farms, looking for anything to eat, like livestock. 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:40.470 So the increase in attacks, the aggression. It 00:21:40.470 --> 00:21:42.910 could just be ecological stress. It's a very 00:21:42.910 --> 00:21:45.349 strong contributing factor. The chupacabra becomes 00:21:45.349 --> 00:21:48.109 the sort of scary embodiment of that stress, 00:21:48.329 --> 00:21:50.950 a name for the increased danger during a hard 00:21:50.950 --> 00:21:53.910 time. And that need for a label, maybe that explains 00:21:53.910 --> 00:21:55.809 the huge variety in descriptions we talked about 00:21:55.809 --> 00:21:57.950 earlier. I think it does. Remember, thick skin, 00:21:58.150 --> 00:22:01.130 thin skin, wings, no wings, bat -like, alien 00:22:01.130 --> 00:22:03.569 dog -like. It's all over the place. Impossible 00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:06.480 for one real creature. Completely. It strongly 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:09.140 suggests that Chupacabra just became this catch 00:22:09.140 --> 00:22:11.440 -all term. For anything weird? Anything weird 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.319 and scary, especially if it involved livestock. 00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:17.180 You hear about this monster, the Chupacabra, 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:20.180 on the news. Then you see some strange animal. 00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:22.779 Maybe it's a monkey that escaped from somewhere. 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:25.099 Maybe it's a fox with mange. Maybe it's just 00:22:25.099 --> 00:22:27.420 a dog you don't recognize acting aggressively. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:29.920 And your brain just goes chupacabra. Exactly. 00:22:30.059 --> 00:22:33.119 It's confirmation bias. You use the label you 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:35.440 already know to make sense of something frightening 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.460 and unknown. It gives a scary, chaotic event, 00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:41.539 a story, a narrative. And this type of story, 00:22:41.619 --> 00:22:44.589 the livestock killing vampire. It's not unique 00:22:44.589 --> 00:22:47.049 to the Chupacabra, is it? You find similar ideas 00:22:47.049 --> 00:22:49.230 elsewhere. Oh, yeah. The fear is pretty universal. 00:22:49.250 --> 00:22:52.250 It taps into something deep, probably. In the 00:22:52.250 --> 00:22:54.450 U .S., you've got legends like the Ozark Howler. 00:22:54.569 --> 00:22:57.410 What's that? Supposedly a large, maybe bear -like 00:22:57.410 --> 00:22:59.789 or cat -like creature in the Ozarks region shares 00:22:59.789 --> 00:23:02.349 that element of being this feared, unknown predator. 00:23:02.650 --> 00:23:05.230 And in South America, where the Chupacabra story 00:23:05.230 --> 00:23:07.869 also took hold. In Chile, they have the Puchin. 00:23:07.930 --> 00:23:10.799 Puchin. Different look. Very different look, 00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:13.779 often described as a winged snake, but the habit 00:23:13.779 --> 00:23:17.000 is strikingly similar. It attacks livestock associated 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:20.339 with draining blood or life force. Winged snake. 00:23:20.619 --> 00:23:22.700 Where might that come from? Well, one theory 00:23:22.700 --> 00:23:25.119 connects it to the vampire bat, which is native 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:27.579 to that region and does feed on livestock blood. 00:23:27.819 --> 00:23:30.460 So you can see how maybe a real animal gets exaggerated 00:23:30.460 --> 00:23:33.460 into this terrifying mythical creature over time. 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:36.099 A biological basis twisted by folklore. Could 00:23:36.099 --> 00:23:38.460 be. And you see similar figures even further 00:23:38.460 --> 00:23:41.039 away. Like where? The sigbin in the Philippines 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:43.720 shares a lot of the chupacabra's reported traits, 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:48.039 functions as this scary livestock predator in 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:50.319 their folklore. So this isn't just a 90s phenomena? 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:52.559 Not at all. And we see the same cycle playing 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.259 out even now. Really? Where recently? There was 00:23:56.259 --> 00:23:59.140 a case in Manipur, India back in 2018. A whole 00:23:59.140 --> 00:24:01.220 series of mysterious attacks on farm animals, 00:24:01.500 --> 00:24:04.640 poultry. Caused a panic. people thought chupacabra 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:07.440 sparked local fear yeah yeah the idea of some 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:10.319 unknown cryptid came up but then forensic experts 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:13.359 got involved they examined the remains the attack 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.299 patterns conclusion it was local street dogs 00:24:16.299 --> 00:24:19.680 probably feral or semi -feral packs driven by 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.380 hunger same story different continents desperate 00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:25.299 canids attack Fear labels it a monster. It just 00:24:25.299 --> 00:24:28.819 repeats, which shows how the Chupacabra idea 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:31.279 has really gone beyond its specific origins. 00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:34.019 It's become this global shorthand, hasn't it, 00:24:34.059 --> 00:24:37.000 for that kind of inexplicable threat to our safe 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.559 domestic world. And pop culture definitely picked 00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:41.420 up on that shorthand. That immediately. Once 00:24:41.420 --> 00:24:43.519 a monster gets a cool name and a scary look, 00:24:43.619 --> 00:24:46.180 it's guaranteed a spot in the modern monster 00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:48.319 pantheon. I remember it showing up pretty early 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:50.559 on TV. Didn't the X -Files do an episode? Yep, 00:24:50.619 --> 00:24:54.480 1997. El Mundo Jira, classic. It just became 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.859 this known cultural reference point you could 00:24:56.859 --> 00:24:59.400 use for horror or even comedy. Like the South 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:02.039 Park episode. Chupacabra, yeah, from 2012. That 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.240 shows the legend is so baked into culture, you 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.059 can use it for satire. And then you get things 00:25:06.059 --> 00:25:08.940 like that Netflix movie from 2023, Chupa. Right, 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:11.220 where it was suddenly kind of cute. Totally reinvented. 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:13.539 Made it this sympathetic creature needing protection, 00:25:13.819 --> 00:25:17.420 so the image keeps evolving in pop culture. Comics, 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:21.369 video games, cartoons, it's everywhere. it's 00:25:21.369 --> 00:25:23.809 a known thing even though as we've discussed 00:25:23.809 --> 00:25:28.589 the actual basis for it is well shaky at best 00:25:28.589 --> 00:25:31.190 based on misidentification and misinterpretation 00:25:31.190 --> 00:25:32.750 yeah okay let's try and pull this all together 00:25:32.750 --> 00:25:34.829 then synthesize it for everyone listening right 00:25:34.829 --> 00:25:37.210 so the chupacabra when you break it down it's 00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:40.549 really this fascinating kind of unique dual phenomenon. 00:25:40.789 --> 00:25:44.109 It's not one single monster. No, it's a story 00:25:44.109 --> 00:25:46.630 that basically split in two. Exactly. Two separate 00:25:46.630 --> 00:25:49.170 narratives. And each one has its own logical 00:25:49.170 --> 00:25:52.289 but still pretty compellingly scary explanation 00:25:52.289 --> 00:25:56.140 behind it. So type one. The original, the spiky 00:25:56.140 --> 00:25:58.299 reptilian one from Puerto Rico. That's your perfect 00:25:58.299 --> 00:26:00.920 storm of media influence and maybe suggestibility. 00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:03.859 You've got real anxiety about livestock attacks 00:26:03.859 --> 00:26:06.200 mixing with the imagery from a specific horror 00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:08.779 movie species released at just the right time. 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:11.660 And the alleged vampirism. Medically unconfirmed. 00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:13.759 Never verified by forensics, no. Then you have 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.859 type 2, the hairless, scary dog -like creature 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:20.339 seen more in the U .S. And that one is biological, 00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.019 but it's not a new species. It's almost certainly 00:26:23.019 --> 00:26:27.240 a familiar animal, a coyote, maybe a dog suffering 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:30.099 from a really severe case of sarcoptic mange. 00:26:30.380 --> 00:26:32.740 And the mange explains the horrifying appearance. 00:26:33.059 --> 00:26:35.119 And the weakness from the disease explains the 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:38.359 behavior, why it attacks easy livestock, why 00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:41.000 it might kill without eating. It all fits the 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:44.519 mange hypothesis. So ultimately, the chupacabra 00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:46.619 isn't really out there in the woods or deserts. 00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:49.309 It... persists for other reasons. It persists 00:26:49.309 --> 00:26:50.990 because it taps into something psychological, 00:26:51.269 --> 00:26:53.809 I think. It's become this really potent cultural 00:26:53.809 --> 00:26:57.529 symbol, a shorthand for the scary, violent unknown, 00:26:57.890 --> 00:27:00.569 especially when things feel unstable. Like during 00:27:00.569 --> 00:27:02.430 environmental stress, like those droughts you 00:27:02.430 --> 00:27:04.509 mentioned, when the boundary between our world 00:27:04.509 --> 00:27:07.109 and the wild feels threatened. Exactly. That's 00:27:07.109 --> 00:27:09.069 when these stories seem to gain the most power. 00:27:09.230 --> 00:27:10.609 Which leads us to a final thought, something 00:27:10.609 --> 00:27:13.210 for you, the listener, to maybe chew on. Yeah. 00:27:13.309 --> 00:27:15.329 Think about the sheer resilience of this modern 00:27:15.329 --> 00:27:17.799 legend. We've just walked through how the chupacabra's 00:27:17.799 --> 00:27:20.420 origins are pretty well documented right uh -huh 00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:23.339 the movie link for one type the mange explanation 00:27:23.339 --> 00:27:25.440 for the other it's been investigated scientifically 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:28.859 explained the facts are out there and yet yeah 00:27:28.859 --> 00:27:33.359 the chupacabra itself as an idea as a figure 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:36.880 it's still totally out there it's arguably a 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.720 permanent fixture in global folklore now Why? 00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:42.140 Maybe just because a really good story, especially 00:27:42.140 --> 00:27:44.859 one that plugs into our fears, maybe has a bit 00:27:44.859 --> 00:27:46.940 of that Hollywood flair is often just way more 00:27:46.940 --> 00:27:49.880 powerful, way more memorable than the plain scientific 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:52.200 truth. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:53.839 into the legend of the goat sucker. We'll see 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:54.319 you next time.