El Chupacabra Strikes Again
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Move over, Sasquatch. There's a chupacabra on your tail.
A real-estate agent from New York thinks he's found the mythical creature, which has captured the public's imagination for years. Carcasses of the coyote-like chupacabra have been "identified" across the U.S., and the latest is now on display in an upstate New York museum.
The chupacabra comes from Hispanic folklore, where it is supposedly known for attacking goats and other livestock (chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish). It was even featured on the popular television series "The X-Files."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The latest creature was found in Texas, and it has been stuffed and put on display at John Adolfi's Lost World Museum in Phoenix, N.Y., through the end of the month. As part of the exhibit, the museum just debuted a map marking all chupacabra sightings and kills reported in the last five years in the United States. To qualify as a point on the map, the museum notes, there must be a photo and news story or at least an e-mail from the photographer explaining the encounter.
SLIDESHOW: Recent Chupacabra Sightings
The exhibit also includes 45 photos of living or killed "chupacabras," 6 minutes of news footage and the remains of a 4-month old hopping gray critter from 2006.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adolphi claims to have sent tissue samples from the creature to a lab for 600 hours of extensive testing. When asked for details, Adolphi told Foxnews.com that the Texan university running the tests asked to remain anonymous "due to the disruptions they may receive with questions and interviews that will take away from the time necessary to focus on the testing."
He added that the testing will include exact measurements of the bones, and that a second set of coyote remains were sent for comparison. Tests will include DNA and enzyme analysis and "a look into the creature’s stomach."
In an interview with the Palladium Times, Adolphi explained the history of the strange creature: After wreaking havoc in a chicken barn in Rosenberg, Texas in July, the creature was poisoned, immediately frozen, and later taken to taxidermist Jerry Ayer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A string of mysterious creatures over the past few years has been associated with the chupacabra, including an ugly creature from Cuero, Texas, (later identified as a coyote with mange) and the so-called Montauk Monster (later identified as a raccoon).
The exhibit is closing down Nov. 1 and will reopen in the spring with a new exhibit focusing on the museum's mission: exploring evolution, creationism and ancient alien intervention.