I think it's el chupacabra!

Lots of fun going on in Elmendorf this week. Elmendorf being a tiny town southeast of San Antonio. It seems that a rancher started losing a bunch of chickens to predation, and shot this critter:



In the first San Antonio Express-News article on this pressing issue, one federal wildlife biologist dismisses it as a coyote with mange:

Wildlife biologist Brian Mesenbrink, with the San Antonio office of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saw the pictures and declared it was a coyote with mange.

Mesenbrink said the Elmendorf area has a heavy concentration of coyotes.

"The mange is caused by parasites that infest the skin of the coyote and end up killing it," he said. "I know the Elmendorf area has a lot of coyotes and I am pretty sure that's what it is."

But that thing doesn't even remotely look like it has coyote bone structure. And it's only 20 pounds, which is very, very small for a coyote. It looks more like an unholy Dr. Moreau cross between a possum and a kangaroo. I'll give him the mange, though. That's mangiest looking thing I think I've ever seen. My first thought when I saw it was "That's a chupacabra!" And you know what? Chupacabra is so much fun to say and to write, I'm gonna stick with it no matter what anyone else says.

Of course, it gets better. In an Express-News follow-up story, speculation runs rampant on the creature's true identity. One fellow insists it's a coyote-hyena hybrid. One kid thinks it's a blue duiker. Now, while I'll grant that there is a certain deer-like quality to this thing's appearance, and primitive cervids do indeed have tusks, this most definitely isn't a duiker, muntjac or any other small deer or antelope species. It has toes, for one thing, where deer and antelope have hooves. And they don't eat chickens, either.

This is such a melon-scratcher that MUFON is showing interest. Locals say it's the biggest excitement to hit Elmendorf since the Alligator Man shot himself:

According to legend, Ball, also known as the "Alligator Man," kept a pond of seven pet alligators near his tavern. When workers at his tavern began disappearing, townsfolk speculated he had killed them and fed their corpses to his alligators.

"When he was called in for questioning he pulled out a gun and shot himself," Nancy DeLeon said. "The story of Mr. Mcanally's creature is right up there with that one now."

Boy oh boy, how I do love living in Texas! Long live el chupacabra!

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