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Early in July a retired wildlife biologist who lives near Lake Jackson photographed an animal that looks like a hairless, sick coyote or feral dog. He sent the photos to a newspaper as a joke. Unfortunately the newspaper did not see the irony, and the story became national news in the "weird news" vein.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/chupac ... d=14054232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It turns out there is a community of chupacabra "believers" akin to alien abduction and bigfoot believers.

Like UFOs, cupacabras usually are seen in isolated areas, in poor light, by people who have crummy cameras and are three cans short of a six-pack.

- Jim

I saw one in a mirror once. Scared the bejabbers out of me. I tried to show it my wife, and she implied that I was just seeing my own reflection. How could that be? I'm a handsome devil.

...it prolly WAS a coyote...who'd been usin' an armadillo's hanky...

Definitely option two. But remember the Thylacine was a myth until pictures started showing up in the 1880's, then it was "extinct" in 1933 but sightings kept being reported. Since the mainstream science community typically won't believe anything exists unless it is on the necropsy table, these reports have been blown off. Then footage starts to trickle in that is compelling enough to make them reconsider and to start looking at them again.

The Okapi was only recognized as real in the 20th century. Then it was thought to be extinct and those that reported seeing them were treated as deluded idiots. Now practically every decent zoo has one.

I think with all of the unexplored land and the vast 90% of unexplored oceans, when we decide that a report is not reliable because we have not seen it or there is no footage, we are doomed to miss it unless it bites us in our collective trouser seats.

But THAT (OP pic) is a coyote.

Now, ask me how I feel about what science calls "primitive" cultures.

I'm willing to grant there are undiscovered species, even large mammals, in areas like the Amazon basin or Siberia—but not in Brazoria County.

Also one of the people who is trying to get some attention in the "chupacabra studies" field claims he shot one but burned the body because it might have carried disease. Please pardon my incredulity about why he didn't at least put a gram of tissue in a jar of alcohol or something (for DNA analysis).

- Jim

...prolly worried he might be kin...

BigFoot's no joke, man. He has his own coffee chain up here!

The "chupacabra" photos I've seen look a lot like feral Xoloitzcuintle - Mexican hairless dogs - to me.

Thanks. Good point.

I was listening to Tom Gresham's "Gun Talk" Sunday when a guy called in wanting to know the best weapon to acquire for wolves. The guy said he lived in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York.

Tom Gresham basically said Uh-huh and found a reason to end the call.

There haven't been wolves in New York for a couple of centuries. If the caller was not a joker, he probably saw a feral dog or coyote cross.

- Jim

Looks as though a very wily coyote got a shave job to survive the Texas heat!

I've seen two of these things around my area. Even took pictures with my cell phone of one of them walking through my neighborhood. Sent an email to two of the local news stations and never got responses back from either one!

Talking about Big Foot, I was acquiring some seismic data in east Texas a few years ago, and had to work around a group that was there researching a Big Foot sighting.