The Chupacabra. The literal translation for the Spanish word “chupacabra” is “goat sucker.” The name comes from the animal’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, including goats. This creature has been a constant conundrum to cryptozoologists (scientists who study animals that may or may not be real) in North and South America for more than 50 years. With sightings in various regions of Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States, this is one well-traveled beast. An anomaly since the early 1950s, the Chupacabra was at its height of notoriety in the 1990s — even surpassing such longtime favorites as Nessy (the Loch Ness monster) and Bigfoot. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. It is purportedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.
