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This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.

24 What is the chupacabra? Is the chupacabra really some type of vampire?

Imagine an animal that looks like a gorilla-reptile-gargoygle with
batlike wings, bulging red eyes, large claws, fangs and a long darting
tongue. Imagine that this creature can fly or, at least, take great
leaps. Imagine it to be a nocturnal predator of livestock such as goats,
sheep, chickens, and cows, and that it feeds on them by drinking their
blood from two puncture wounds near the jugular vein, doing no other
damage to the body. Finally, imagine that this creature's handiwork has
been reported as far north as Michigan, south as Chile, west as
California, and east as Puerto Rico, although it seems to prefer the
Latin American countries. This is the chupacabra as pieced together
from reports made by persons who claim to have seen it.

Sightings of the Chupacabra [from Spanish "chupar" (to suck) + "cabra"
(goat)] gained worldwide attention in the mid-1990s, but chupacabras
have been around since the 1960s. After some 40 years, however, no one
has yet photographed or caught a chupacabra, live or dead.

Cryptozoologists (scientists who study animals which may or may not be
real) have placed the chupacabra right up there with Bigfoot and Loch
Nessie but have found no evidence to confirm or deny its existence.
Locals think the chupacabra is some sort of genetically-engineered bat
or other experimental animal which got loose. Skeptics blame something
more normal, such as dogs, coyotes, wolves, or pumas. But one thing is
certain. There are hundreds of photos of livestock carcasses that have
been drained of blood with no bodily damage other than two puncture
wounds in their necks. If not a chupacabra, then what?

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