Chupacabra



""Chupacabra. They're all over Mexico.""

- Brock Samson, The Venture Brothers

An Urban Myth monster of Latin American origin, believed to suck the blood of livestock animals, especially goats (thus the name, which is Spanish for "Goatsucker"). Combines old Vampire Tropes with modern UFO mythology.

The myth began in Puerto Rico during the 1970s. At the time, there was a rash of animal slayings, mostly farm animals that had bled to death. This caused some people to (halfway seriously) think some kind of vampiric creature was on the loose; it became known as "The Moca Vampire" (Moca being the town were the attacks started). The attacks eventually stopped as mysteriously as they begun. The local yellow journals, of course, exploited them to the hilt.

Coincidentally, at the same time, similar unexplained cattle slayings were taking place in the southwestern United States. In their case, they gave rise to the urban legend of aliens stealing cattle for experimentation.

In the 1990s, the attacks started happening again on Puerto Rico. This time, people started calling the "monster" El Chupacabras, later shortened to just Chupacabra (supposedly, Silverio Perez of the comedy group Los Rayos Gama coined the name). A magazine called "Revista OVNI" (UFO Magazine) came up with the theory that the creature could have been created by aliens (likely inspired by the American cattle slayings theory). They also provided an artist's conception of what it looked like -- showing a creature resembling a skinny, big eyed "Grey" type alien but with fangs, claws, scaly skin and a ridge of spines along the back. Despite having no actual evidence for any of this, people embraced it, and the current concept of the Chupacabra was born. The slayings were never officially resolved, though reportedly an American expert on animal attacks identified them as being caused by wild dogs, based on some pictures of the carcasses he saw.

The myth became surprisingly popular across Central and South America over the years, and even in the Southern United States, with people claiming to have actually seen the creature. It also has been featured on several TV shows and movies, effectively being treated as the Latin American equivalent of Bigfoot. Pop culture spread the chupacabra even further, with recent sightings as far as Russia.

The Chupacabra is sometimes known as the Chupacabras. This is in fact the original form of the name in Spanish; this type of compound word in Spanish (verb + noun) usually has the plural form of the noun (other examples: el abrelatas "the can opener", el sacapuntas "the pencil sharpener", el tocadiscos "the record player", el pisapapeles "the paperweight").

Some examples of series that have made references to the Chupacabra:

Anime and Manga

 * Mahou Sensei Negima references the Chupacabra once or twice. In the original, it was just theorized that it was a Chupacabra behind the vampire attacks. (In truth, it was )
 * In the second animated series Negima!?, it became more of a Running Gag, ranging from a Chupacabra-based club being used as a cover for those who discovered Negi's secret and Asuna printing far too many Chupa-Tees to sell, to . Even in the Spring OVA, a small portion is spent on a Chupacabra hunt, and at the very end, a Chupacabra is seen watching the plane fly away.
 * Also note that the Chupacabra shown here is much more comical than most versions, resembling more a spotted potato with fangs than anything else.
 * In the manga of Azumanga Daioh, when the girls are planning to go to the zoo to see real pandas instead of just pictures, Osaka thinks of something else she wants to see. When she remembers, what she says is translated as "the chupacabra". (The anime version of the same scene says something else, and the original version says she wanted to see her life flash before her eyes.)
 * The Chupacabra is referred to by name in Keroro Gunsou, complete with a Recycled in Space variant called Space Chupacabra, but eating goats is never brought up - it's still considered as urban myth though, and the resident mythological-creature-hunter Alisa Southerncross goes after it - but gets curbstomped bigtime as it eats her surrogate father Nevula.
 * In Occult Academy, Maya and the gang investigate mysterious cattle mutilations near their school. At first, they dismiss it as a bad-natured prank.

Comic Books

 * A recent Fantastic Four miniseries, "Isla de la Muerte" (Island of Death) had the superheroes coming to Puerto Rico to deal with the Chupacabra.
 * In Young Justice, Impulse raced over to Puerto Rico to look for one after reading a cryptozoology book - lifting rocks and animals while calling out for it.
 * In the Monster Mash comic Perhapanauts, the team's comic relief is Chupie, a talking chupacabra.
 * The comic book Proof features a chupacabra as a recurring character. Its true form has never been seen, because its M.O. is to kill people and wear their skin.

Film

 * The Burrowers: The titular creatures are very similar to the idea of the Chupacabra.
 * Numerous obscure little horror films, including:
 * Chupacabra Terror.
 * The "Mongo Chupa" segment of Terror Overload.
 * GoatSucker.
 * El Matadero.
 * Mexican Werewolf in Texas.
 * El Chupacabra.
 * Legend of the Chupacabra.

Literature

 * In the horror anthology Tropical Tales Of Terror The Chupacabras were actually a hidden race of intelligent, predatory birds.
 * A Chupacabra named Xolo shows up in the Cal Leandros series as the vampire Cherish's cute, seemingly harmless pet. That is, until he's revealed to be
 * One of Falcon Quinn's friends is a chupacabra named Pearl. Rather than an alien, she more closely resembles a fairy with a large stinger tail. And while she does enjoy chupa-ing the occasional cabra, she's more fond of flower nectar. She's also extremely proud of her heritage. Extremely.

Live Action TV

 * In The X-Files, the Chupacabras are actually illegal immigrants who have been infected by an alien fungus.
 * An episode of Xena: Warrior Princess amusingly featured a rampaging critter which wasn't called a Chupacabra on-screen, but was blatantly modeled after the standard description of the beast. (See picture above for the general idea.)
 * A featured monster on Animal Planet's Lost Tapes. This version differed from the image above in that it was more of a canine-like ground-dwelling bat monster.
 * One of the three leaders of the Yuumajuu in Tensou Sentai Goseiger is of the Chupacabra.
 * Bones had a Chubacabra as a possible suspect in one episode, "The Truth In The Myth".

Machinima

 * Red vs. Blue makes a quick joke about it. Sarge calls it a "Chupa-thingie."
 * He is still fond of calling the team's jeep "Chupa-baby."

Tabletop Games

 * Deadlands tells us that Chupacabras...Chupacabrae... Chupacab... "Goat Suckers" have actually been around since the late 19th Century. True to the stories that have sprung up around them in modern times,
 * Pathfinder, in its desire to fill up its Bestiaries with as much cryptids and folkloric creatures from real life instead of making up new things like its arch-rival, includes a chupe that's a fair bit more lizard-like than the standard portrayal.

Video Games

 * Diablo has a Scavenger-type boss monster named El Chupacabras.
 * Appears as a tough regular enemy in the later Castlevania games, although a translation error led to it being called "Cave Troll". In Dawn of Sorrow, getting its soul lets Soma attack with a Gene Simmons-style long ass tongue.
 * Chupacabra is one of the many mythical and folkloric beings that appears in Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey.
 * You can summon Chupacabras in Scribblenauts - they attack goats on sight. Amusingly, they can wear hats and can hold items.
 * In the Elder Scrolls series of games, a chupacabra like monster called a "Hunger" appears as regular enemy in Morrowind and in the Shivering Isles expansion pack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. More so resembling their counterpart considering they posses strong "Drain Health" spell and attack with their tongue.
 * In Shadow Hearts 3 one of the hunting quests is for the Chupacabra. In of all places.
 * Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare has a chupacabra that can be killed as part of a challenge. There's even an achievement for doing so, titled "Chupathingy."
 * Greasels from Deus Ex.
 * In Fallout: New Vegas, No-Bark Noonan confuses a Nightkin for one of these.
 * They're an tough enemy in Let's Go Find El Dorado, that can kill off one of your party members on contact with your wagon.

Webcomics

 * In Sluggy Freelance, while avoiding Bun-bun, Aylee goes to pick up a tray of drinks for the group. The waitress is terrified and stammers "Do not eat me, chupacabra!" to which Aylee cheerfully responds "Do not eat me, senorita!", thinking it's a normal human greeting. She later resolves to use one of Bun-bun's greetings, "your money or your life!"
 * Ursula Vernon's small webcomic Irrational Fears features a chupacabra facing down various monsters.
 * Jeffrey Rowland's Overcompensating has featured several storylines featuring a Chupacabra.
 * In a throwaway gag, a victim of the gender shifting orb in Eerie Cuties was in gathering signatures on a petition to save the 'spotted chupacabra'.

Web Original

 * In The Impossible Man, the chupacabra is actually a pet owned by teenager Angela Salinas. It's appearance in the story resembles the cartoon rendition of chupacabra, where it is a green furball with fangs, as featured on some Puerto Rican T-Shirts.
 * Spec World has (or had) a fictional cryptid called the Chupie (links to Web Archive because the page hasn't been moved to the new host yet).

Western Animation

 * The animated movie Scooby Doo and the Monster of Mexico, which not only gets the origin of the creature completely wrong (treating it as being part of Aztec mythology!) but redesigned it to look more bigfoot-like. (The writers might have gotten it confused with the Nahual, a supposed Mexican were-jaguar.)
 * Partly justified, however:
 * It still convinced the villagers though.
 * Dexter's Laboratory had an episode that claimed Dexter had created it (to scare off Deedee) but it had escaped to Brazil.
 * Sealab 2021 had an episode titled "Isla de Chupacabras."
 * The monster also appears in an episode, "Dia de Los Dangerous!" of The Venture Brothers, inexplicably leaping from Brock's car to attack Dr. Venture. Apparently, Mexico is full of them. Amusingly, Dr. Venture had earlier declared them to be nonsense.
 * In Futurama, the Planet Express crew ventured into the sewers where the inhabitants lived in fear of a vicious monster they called El Chupanibre.
 * The Jackie Chan Adventures episode "The Curse of the Chupacabra" features Jackie and El Toro fighting one of these while in Mexico and El Toro being scratched by it causing him to become one himself, until the curse is broken.
 * It appeared in one episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: It comes out of the TV screen while Billy is watching a magical videotape. It latches onto his nose. Grim presumes that it's trying to eat his brains, and Mandy thinks it'll starve. Of course, Billy being what he is, doesn't know what it is and can't even pronounce its name ("Chupa-ma-flablah").
 * On Maya and Miguel, the title characters tried to claim that they had one as a pet. Then, it turned out that there really was one in town.
 * The Christmas Episode of Mucha Lucha had chupacabra as Rudo Claus' reindeer.
 * Referenced in an episode of Invader Zim, when Gaz tells Dib she thinks she saw one lurking around the mall's parking garage so she can get rid of him for the afternoon. Dib notes that there aren't any goats around for miles, but nonetheless, he spends the rest of the episode wandering around the garage in search of it.
 * Appears in Generator Rex as one of the few creatures not affected by the nanites.
 * The 2011 Puss in Boots movie has chupacabra as one of Puss' nicknames.