Chupacabra! Or, Attack of the Giant Chihuahua! Or, Beware of Mutant Raccoon

"Chupacabra-like animals turn up in Hood County"
WFAA (July 10, 2010)

"A small North Texas community is getting stirred up about some mysterious animals roaming around.

"Two creatures have been killed in three days, near farms, only a few miles apart. Some are calling them chupacabras; even animal control officers are unsure what they are...."

"...'From a distance, he looked like a hairless chihuahua, only much bigger,' [David] Hewitt said...."

"...In January, another unusual creature was found in Wise County on the Runaway Bay golf course. Experts said it was a hairless raccoon that had lost its coat due to a congenital defect - not disease."

I think the WFAA reporter who wrote the story came about as close as any to identifying the bothersome animals, calling them "varmints."

Mr. Hewitt said that the claws or toenails weren't anything like those of a coyote, and that the animal looked more like a possum. I've no reason to doubt what he says.

On the other hand, as cool as thinking it could be a chupacabra: my guess is that the mutant raccoon explanation is (much) nearer the mark.

Unless chupacabras are defective raccoons. Or, maybe, a rare and normally-reclusive animal - that "experts" have somehow missed in their studies of mammals of this continent. That's possible: but I don't think it's very likely. There have been too many people, living too close together, for too many generations, for even a really, really shy animal to remain anonymous for that long.

Related posts, about strange critters:

• "The Aye-Aye: Very Strange Primates In Madagascar"
  (January 7, 2010)
• "Barry the Giant Reef-Eating Worm (Sounds Cooler than Polychaete Worm)"
  (August 5, 2009)
• "Chukchi Blob: It's Algae (No Space Aliens, Alas!)"
  (July 20, 2009)
• "Montauk Monster is Back: Photo Revealed"
  (May 13, 2009)
• "Hurdia Victoria: Cambrian Supercritter of the Burgess Shale"
  (March 20, 2009)
• "Sea Monsters Aren't Real: Sort of"
  (March 13, 2009)
• "Montauk Monster: It's Alive! Three Live Sightings So Far"
  (August 3, 2008)
• "Montauk Monster: Publicity Stunt by Space Aliens, Implicating USDA's Plum Island?"
  (July 30, 2008)