Mysterious Roadkill -- 'Chupacabra' Found in Minnesota?

Officials with Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources have been unable to identify a mystery carcass -- leading to wild speculation that it may be the mythical chupacabra. (Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources)

Minnesota state officials are baffled by a mysterious carcass found on a county road, prompting further investigation -- leading to speculation that it may be a boar, an ox, or even a chupacabra.

The hairless white creature was discovered with five claws, dark tufts of hair on its back, and long toenails. With experts unable to identify the mystery mammal, people started talking.

Lacey Ilse told KSAX-TV she was driving near her home on County Road 86, south of Alexandria, when she spotted the mysterious mammal.

"We saw something in the middle of the road, and we knew it wasn't a dog or a cat, because it didn't have hair. It had a clump of hair and all the rest was just white skin," Ilse said. "Its ear was all misshaped. To me, it looked like half-human."

Some folks believe it to be a chupacabra.

"First guess was a badger with like, a case of mange,” Noelle Jones told KSAX-TV. “But then, some other people were saying, like a chupacabra. And after looking at some pictures, I was like, 'you know, it's possible."

Stories of the chupacabra first surfaced in March 1995 in Puerto Rico when dead, blood-drained goats began showing up (El Chupacabra translates to "goat sucker"). That August, a newspaper printed an eyewitness description of a bipedal creature, 4 to 5 feet tall with spikes down its back, long, thin arms and legs, and an alienlike oblong head with red or black eyes.

That depiction became associated with the chupacabra, and reports of similar creatures began popping up throughout the Caribbean, in Latin America, Mexico and the United States.

Local wildlife supervisor Kevin Kotts appeared skeptical of chupacabra links and tried to remain level with his assessment, though he couldn’t give a definitive answer.

"It's got five long front claws on each of its front feet, which would be characteristic of a badger," Kotts said. "I ran the pictures past a few other DNR folks that have a lot of trapping and/or furbearer experience, and they all said, it's hard to be 100 percent sure what it is ... but if it's a Minnesota animal, it's probably a badger."