"Chupacabra" Blamed for Livestock Deaths Filmed Running through Field in Bolivia

A still image of the creature from Flores’s video. *(Telemundo)*

A creature that some believe could be the Chupacabra was filmed via drone in Oruro, Bolivia, earlier this month, following a string of livestock deaths wherein cows, llamas, and alpacas were reportedly found dead with most of their blood drained.

The video was shot by local filmmaker Carla Flores, who told Telemundo, "It's strange. It looks like a dog, but it has a hump towards the back. Looking at the images it has the same positioning that a Chupacabra has."

The Chupacabra, or “goat sucker," is a cryptid creature said to stalk and kill livestock. Between the months of March and August in 1995, more than 150 farm animals were left dead in Puerto Rico, drained of blood, with puncture wounds in their necks. The situation became dire enough that Mayor Jose Soto recruited volunteers to help hunt the creature responsible, but they ultimately came up empty. While tales of the Chupacabra may have originated in Puerto Rico, they have since spread throughout the Americas.

The Chupacabra is often described as a small, reptilian humanoid with a row of spines that run from its neck to the base of its tail, although some witnesses claim that it looks like a strange breed of hairless wild dog with a pronounced spinal ridge, unusually pronounced eye sockets, fangs, and claws. Regardless of appearance, the Chupacabra is said to literally suck the blood of its prey, exsanguinating the unfortunate animals on which it feeds.

In Oruro, farmers are seeking help in tracking down whatever may be responsible for the deaths of their livestock, and have taken extra precautions, like increasing lighting at night and placing barbed wire to dissuade intruders.

Whether or not these methods will be effective remains to be seen, since there are some who believe the offender could be a visitor from space.

In contrast, Lucio Portugal, a government official in the town of Canllapata, has asked that people not jump to conclusions because it could generate panic among the local population.

"We don't know if it's the Chupacabra or not, so we need to do our research before we make an early conclusion," he said.

But this isn’t the only event being blamed on the infamous bloodsucker to make the news this month.

In the southern Guatemala municipality of Chimaltenango, some believe the Chupacabra snuck up behind a flock of turkeys, ducks, and chickens, draining them of blood and killing them.

"We have many opinions, because some neighbors say that it could be the Chupacabra, while others say that during the night, they have heard what seems to be meowing and have seen a shape of a wolf-like animal at night," one woman said to Guatevisión.

Regardless, residents want the police department to conduct an investigation.

"The truth is not known what kind of animal it is," another woman said. "What we are asking the authorities is to pay a little attention to this situation, and to help us identify the animal that is behind all this."

This attack followed reports of a similar incident that left 75 animals dead in the Guatemalan village of Pueblo Viejo on March 24th, and in May, residents of the rural town of Leona Vicario, 24 miles west of Cancún in Mexico, say the Chupacabra may have killed a goat that had its eyes removed and blood drained.

However, much like in the cases above, there are those who think that known native animals could be at least partially to blame.

“Jaguarundis usually eat the soft parts, the eyes and the tongue. It may have been that animal or another one acting similar," the New York Post quoted one person as saying.

As for the video out of Bolivia, skeptics bemoan its lack of quality and argue that it could be a number of mundane animals, such as a dog.

The results of any official investigations into the animal deaths have yet to be released.

These events are reminiscent of what has become known as cattle mutilation in the United States.

In April of this year, authorities in Texas investigated several such incidents involving cattle with their tongues and the skin around their mouths removed. There was reportedly no blood found at any of the scenes.

These incidents are similar to another string of cattle mutilations which began in Oregon in 2019 and continued into 2021.

Those cattle were also found missing various body parts and with very little blood left at the scene.

Also in 2019, Aaron Linn and Jodi Houston claimed to have seen strange lights over a pasture near Ocala, Florida, where a cow was reportedly later found to have had body parts cleanly removed.

The deaths of these cattle are part of a much larger phenomenon involving thousands of livestock deaths and mutilations that have been reported since the 1970s. The mysterious deaths and mutilations were so prolific at one point that they even drew the attention of the FBI. The reports are eerily similar, sharing the grotesque details of missing body parts and a conspicuous lack of blood.

Explanations for the deaths range from mundane illnesses to satanic cults to extraterrestrials, but so far, they remain a mystery. Missing body parts are sometimes explained away by skeptics as the result of scavengers, although investigators often point to the clean, precise incisions and lack of blood present as evidence to the contrary.