El Chupacabra de Goliad

The late summer afternoon heat is sizzling over the senderos and mesquite trees on a property just outside of Goliad, Texas. Even the birds have gone into hiding for some relief from the oppressive sun. Silence falls over the trees, and even the wind seems to have taken a siesta.

Something moves at the base of the trees, a shadow that rarely steps into the light of day. Waiting until there is nothing to see but the trees and grass.

The creature finally steps out of the trees, the sun warm on its skin. It will not risk exposure for long, so it quickly moves past the feeder, across the sendero, and back into the cover of the thick brush.

What it didn’t consider was the small green box on a tree facing the feeder. Nor did it hear the quiet “click” of a photo being taken.

Imagine our surprise when this strange picture popped up on the trail camera on our next trip to the family ranch! That’s just not something you see every day.

I know, you’re thinking, really? You actually think this is a chupacabra?

I don’t know… Maybe!

This picture came up on our trail cams almost exactly 3 years ago along with a few other sightings over time that made us start to question what we were seeing.

Naturally, the camera didn’t capture its face, but the body is strange enough to look at with it’s almost rounded ears and the stripes on its tail underneath its sparse fur. It also looks to be moving pretty quick in the picture.

With the unusual markings and shape of the ears, it made us wonder; could it be a chupacabra?

After some serious discussion, we came up with two theories on our chupacabra’s identity.

1. Exotic Hybrid

Here’s the thing about Texas; there are a lot of exotic animals here. Between hunting ranches and people that buy them as pets, there are some unusual animals in South Texas, and a lot of them actually thrive in the climate along the coast. What if a hyena had escaped from captivity and started breeding with coyotes or other canines in the area?

Before you call me crazy, there’s an entire species, the Nilgai, that is considered an honorary native species in Texas after escaping from big game ranches and thriving on its own in the wild. If antelope the size of a horse are able to escape, why not a hyena or other exotic canine species being kept as a pet?

Goliad is a large hunting area with many exotic ranches in the area, so it’s definitely possible that a creature could’ve escaped. There have been a lot of sightings of this chupacabra in that particular region, too, so it lends a little credibility to the theory.

2. Coyote with Mange

Well, of course, this is a high probability. Most of the “chupacabras” that have been killed and studied have actually been confirmed as coyotes with mange.

Mange is a highly contagious condition caused by mites that are typically encountered and carried by wildlife that inflames the skin and causes severe hair loss in animals. According to the Tufts Wildlife Clinic, it’s also usually more pronounced around the legs, tail, and face of an afflicted animal. If you look back at our picture, you can see that its hair loss matches that pattern. 

And as for the ears? Coyotes have pointed ears, while this one almost seems a little bit rounded. After looking a little more closely, you could say that the ears are drooping a little bit, giving them the appearance of being rounded, when they’re actually pointed.

Conclusion?

Over the course of a couple of months, we got a few more pictures of the creature that pretty much affirmed for us that it was just a coyote with mange. No chupacabras here.

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Though the mystery was easily solved, there’s something fun about living in the “what if” for just a moment. What if chupacabras are real? What if there’s an unusual creature prowling about the ranch when it thinks no one is looking?

It’s one of my favorite things about nature; the mystery. Just when we think we’ve learned her secrets, she reveals something new to us. There are still forests we haven’t hiked. Depths of the ocean we haven’t seen. Corners of space we haven’t considered. While we’ve learned so much about our world, there’s also so much that we don’t know yet.

I had never really appreciated the wonder and mysteries that were still out there until I started hunting and fishing. We’ll never truly understand nature unless we take the time to get to know her; and even then, we’ll never know everything.

In the meantime, I can say without a doubt that there are no chupacabras in Goliad.