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Mystery of the 'Chupacabra' May Be Solved
rhettb writes "The mystery of the legendary chupacabra, a beast said to drain the blood of domestic animals at night, has been solved, according to a University of Michigan scientist. Biologist Barry O'Connor says that most chupacabra sightings are probably linked to coyotes with mange, a disease caused by the same species of mite that triggers scabies in humans. Severe cases of mange cause hair loss and thickening of skin in wild dogs and can lead to bacterial skin infections that produce a foul odor characteristic of the 'chupacabra.' Wombats and squirrels are also susceptible to mange, suggesting that chupacabra are found in trees and Down Under."
Perhaps they should investigate how it's related to the Australian Drop Bear.
(The Koala's distant carnivorous cousin who drops out of trees onto unsuspecting passers by)
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
I live in Puerto Rico, were a big part of the "Chupacabras" myth started.
1st, there are no coyotes in Puerto Rico.. so WTF.
2nd, this is just urban legend... crap you tell at 2 in the morning. Then the news pics up on it.
Years ago (1970s?) there was a local surgeon that "manufactured" these odd "Cara de Diablo" (Face of the Devil??) things. Nobody had ever seen such a thing.
He left them around for everybody's amusement (especially the media).
Big uproar about the Cara de Diablos and what they were.
When the guy came out of the woods, he explained: They were stingrays, he would cut-off the "wings" in a diamond pattern... then stitch them up with his superb abilities.
Chupacabras doesn't exist people.
I doubt it. Wombats live in holes. Sometimes at dusk you can catch them in the open and at those times they are pretty slow moving. Not the kind of animal which could drain the blood out of anything which moves at more than a metre a minute. A dingo on the other hand...
But this Chupacabra seems to be a US only myth. Let me tell you about this hoopsnake I saw just the other day. A real nasty bugger. One metre in diameter and 3.14 metres in length he was. I reckon he broke the new speed limit on Lygon street...
http://michaelsmith.id.au
What about El Chupanibre?
bomb the us up set someone
that the street vendor in Mexico who sold me a Chupacabra burrito was lying? What did I eat?
I honestly don't get how stories get listed/tagged Idle these days. Some of them are really of interest and bring new insight to previously discussed topics. Idle should be Idle... this is something else.
That Big Foot, flying saucers, and ghosts aren't real either? I'm so disappointed!
Couldn't they have spent all this effort on trying to explain Snookie from 'Jersey Shore' instead? I'm confident we'd all be better off if they proved she didn't exist.
What's curious is the word "idle" here in Slashdot has been mangled to mean "weird stuff with some (or a lot of) idiocy involved", when it really ought to mean "this might be remotely interesting in an otherwise completely uneventful day."
Anyway, by either of those standards, this article is clearly not idle.
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
No. Each of those phenomena will have to be explained separately.
Stop the brainwash
"Coyote with mange"?
I thought there might be some connection to Amy Winehouse.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Ok, i worked for a guy from mexico for a few years, and one day asked him what the heck the deal with chupacabra's was. He laughed, and explained to me that years ago, there was this big thing going on in the news in Mexico, detailing some government corruption scandal. It was at this time, that the Chupacabra legend appeared. All of a sudden, all the news reports where about these mysterious 'Goat Suckers' and the government corruption was quietly swept under the rug. Basically, it was a distraction manufactured by the government to draw attention away from the issue at hand.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Around 50 comments and still no mention of this great X-files episode (season 4, IIRC)... I guess Slashdot ain't what it used to be.
Why don't they just call it The Warthog?
Didn't you see the new South Park? Snookie is the chupacabra.
Snookie has something alright but I doubt its as curable as scabies.