August 21, 2024 • 12 mins
What in the world is a chupacabra? Is it even real or is it the stuff of legend? Listen in to find out.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for day. So
it's short stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And now cheop of cabra, that's right?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Is that? Okay? That was gold?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I asked Chuck said that before we recorded. I was like,
can you please say that on this episode? It was
just that great.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It's better than saying goat sucker because that sounds like
a very nasty thing that you would call somebody.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
But that's the literal translation of chupa cabra. Chop are
means to suck, hence why they call them chupa chups.
I just realized. And cabra means goat, not cobra like
you would think it means goat, So chuop a cabra
means goat sucker, not cobra sucker.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's right. And if you're already frustrated a minute and
a half in because you don't know what these words mean,
we are talking about the probably urban legend of the cryptid,
which is an animal that doesn't exist but has a
great legend around it, of the chew cup. Here I go,
the chewpacabra aka the goat sucker.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, there's a reason that they call it a goat
sucker too, and it's pretty straightforward. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I mean, one of the telltale signs at the chewpacabre
if they have come by your farm in the middle
of the night is you will wake up to dead
farm animals that have been drained of their blood.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Usually with puncture wounds in their neck, and often there's
a lot of them and some chupacabra sightings or attacks.
I guess, hundreds of different animals around a farm, sometimes
domestic pets, sometimes wild animals in the area are found
dead all at once. The thing is this chupacabra, which
(01:45):
is a cryptive we should say, no one's ever actually
seen one, and all of the sightings and evidence that
has been collected can be easily explained away by science.
It's not that big. And from what I can tell
there people seem to believe there's just one. Did you
get that impression like there's a choop ofcabra, like there's
(02:05):
a locknus monsters are speed a different species or race
of something to where there's multiple ones. Did you that's
the impression that I have.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'm not sure I got that impression, but I'm not
sure that that that I'm right about that impression.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Can't you just say, yeah, Josh, you're right, way to go?
Is that so important for me? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, should we describe what this thing looks like since
you brought that up?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, because imagine what we're about to talk about, killing
one hundred goats the way that we said they do
in a night.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah. I've seen its short as three feet tall, but
generally about four and a half to five five and
a half feet tall, oval shaped head, glowing eyes like
sort of alien shaped eyes, which you know, put a
pin in that because that'll come back, long sharp spines,
usually from the back of its head down to the tailbone. Strong,
(03:01):
a stinky odor. A lot of people say it is
sort of like a sulfur smell. Some people say it
doesn't smell at all. And then the skin can either
be like lizardy or like a frog's, or it can
be what's been described as like a fuzzy lizard with
like little prickly hairs and scales.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Fuzzy wuzzy wizard.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But here's a key walks on two legs for the
most part, which is one of the creepy parts.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, yes, so there's a do you want to take
a break down, come back and talk about this, like
what people think it is or the origin of it
or what.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, this is not scripted, everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
All right? Take two?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Oh wait, can it start from the beginning? You have
to take it with and now cheopicabra again.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Okay, and now part two of Chop of Cabra. So
you talked about the origins. I've seen mentions of this
all the way back to the nineteen fifties in Arizona.
It seems like it really picked up steam in the
nineties as probably as the Internet picked up steam. And
(04:31):
it looks like Puerto Rico, even though it's been found
in a lot of countries, supposedly mainly in South America,
but there's a lot of stories from Puerto Rico and
may have even originated, as at least the modern online
version from a woman named Madeline Tolentino in San Juan
in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah. Apparently her description kind of set the tone for
the basis, or set the basis I guess for the time. Yeah,
of other descriptions and sightings to come that's right, very
similar to Betty and Barney Hill. She was the Betty
and Barney Hill of chupacabra sightings.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's right, she was both of them.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So yeah, Puerto Rico is a hot spot of chewpacabra sightings. Apparently,
in just one year, in one area alone, there was
several hundred livestock fatalities that were attributed to the chupacabra.
And I mean in just this one town. Just hundreds
of livestock dying in one year alone is very bizarre
(05:36):
and strange. So you can kind of guess that if
everybody's aware of the chupacabra already, they might be like,
I think this is the chupacabra at work.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, for sure. If you've been online and you've seen
pictures of like chupacabra washed up on the beach, there
are quite a few of those, and most of them
have been thoroughly debunked and proven to be It's usually
like a with mange who had rotted such that their
skin receded and it ended up looking really, really weird.
(06:07):
Those aren't chupacabra. In fact, there are no chup of cabra,
but there have been some sightings in the past couple
of years that I did look up on YouTube that
aren't compelling that like where I was like, oh my god,
it's totally real. But it was enough to where I
was like, what in the world is that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yes, In particular, there's one from twenty twenty two where
the Amberillo Zoo in Texas found an image or like
a short snippet of some creature inside its perimeter fence. Yeah,
like one in thirty in the morning. Yeah, walking around,
and it looks very much like a werewolf if you
(06:49):
ask me. It's got the big, massive, massive like back
and shoulders with its head like up around its ears. Essentially,
it's the way it's holding its arms and fingers make it.
It looks a lot to me like somebody who was
dressed up like a werewolf and got into the Amarillo
Zoo on purpose.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, okay, fair.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's been chalked up as a chupacabra siety.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's right. There was another one from twenty twenty three
in Bolivia, and this one also coincided with a bunch
of livestock death supposedly drained of their blood. This drone footage,
So it's a much higher, but it's near Auru City
and you definitely see like a shadowy figure kind of
moving through the field. And uh, I mean it's hard.
(07:33):
It's not as kind of clear clearly werewolf be looking
as the other one. But again, it was just another
recent thing. And you know, both of these could be
people screwing around with people. It could be dressing up
like what they think of Chupacabra looks like exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So I mean Chupacabra, it's a fairly you can tell
it's a fairly recent phenomenon. I mean, the nineties really
are when it started to take off, and definitely it's heyday,
but it is found itself cemented into popular culture, not
just in Latin America, but in the Southwestern United States too.
There's been sightings apparently and everywhere from Arizona to New Mexico,
(08:11):
all over the southwestern United States over the years, and
apparently the earliest, the earliest newspaper account of it dates
back to the fifties in Arizona, which I found very interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, that's right. And I've said to put a pin
in the fact that some people say they have glowing
alien like eyes. That's because some people think, you know,
there of course theories on what could be going on here.
Some people do think that it's a visitor from outer space,
or maybe a pet from a visitor from outer space.
I can you know, like et was left behind, just
(08:45):
like this chew picabra was, or that it is like
NASA was breeding like alien things with human things, and
this was one of those that got out. Supposedly, sure
as they do.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
There's a veterinarian who believes that it was a genetically
modified vampire bat because I don't remember it supposedly as
a bloodsucker, a goat sucker in particular. I believe because
of the fact that this was biggest in the nineties,
I think that whole left behind alien pet is it
(09:23):
was folklore directly influenced by porno for pyros.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh from the pet song.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, from Will Make Great Pets.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, it's a great song. But I guarantee somebody added
that to the folklore from that song.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Oh, so it was a future human that was kept
as a pet.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
No, No, just the concept that aliens even have pets. Oh,
that's why I'm linking it too, could have been a
future human. That's the thing. Everybody's just throwing anything that
can stick at the wall, at the whole cup oficabra phenomenon.
It Again, it's fairly recent enough that it hasn't taken
full solid shape. Still, it seems like to me you
(10:05):
can say, oh, it's a genetically modified vampire bat or whatever.
The best explanation I've seen. You kind of already touched
on about carcasses washed up on the beach being dogs
having mange. Coyotes get mange too, and coyotes tend to
kill live stock. Yeah, if they're from the circus, yes, yeah, yeah.
(10:27):
The telltale signed to me though, is that part of
mange is the hair on the back between the shoulders
usually remains a patch of hair. Yes, hence the spikes
of spines down well the spine and the fact that
they lose their hair so they look really weird. And
(10:47):
apparently just about every single carcass that's ever turned up
and has been attributed or chalked up as chupacabra and
the autopsy is revealed it's an animal with mange. Well done,
my friend, Thank you. Well done to you too, Charles.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I just want to say one more thing. I had
tickets to see that porner. For Pyro's reunion tour last year,
you were one of ten got canceled.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, because they couldn't sell enough tickets, right, That's what
I heard. Surprising.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, but Jane's Addiction is on tour again, and I
love those guys. I just want to publicly say give
credit to Casey Nikolee for her work and if.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The one who was erased from their.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, their history basically great, great call out. Yeah, go
read up about that because she's talking about it now
and it's not cool at all.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I also want to give a shout out. If this
kind of stuff is up your alley or float your
boat or float your alley or whatever, go check out
the site and not The Anomalist. It's an aggregator of
different weird stories, including cryptids and UFOs and all that
stuff from around the internet. It's great. Check out The Anomalist.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's fun.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, since Chuck said fun, I mean short stuff, friends
is out.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for day. So
it's short stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And now cheop of cabra, that's right?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Is that? Okay? That was gold?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I asked Chuck said that before we recorded. I was like,
can you please say that on this episode? It was
just that great.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It's better than saying goat sucker because that sounds like
a very nasty thing that you would call somebody.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
But that's the literal translation of chupa cabra. Chop are
means to suck, hence why they call them chupa chups.
I just realized. And cabra means goat, not cobra like
you would think it means goat, So chuop a cabra
means goat sucker, not cobra sucker.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's right. And if you're already frustrated a minute and
a half in because you don't know what these words mean,
we are talking about the probably urban legend of the cryptid,
which is an animal that doesn't exist but has a
great legend around it, of the chew cup. Here I go,
the chewpacabra aka the goat sucker.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, there's a reason that they call it a goat
sucker too, and it's pretty straightforward. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I mean, one of the telltale signs at the chewpacabre
if they have come by your farm in the middle
of the night is you will wake up to dead
farm animals that have been drained of their blood.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Usually with puncture wounds in their neck, and often there's
a lot of them and some chupacabra sightings or attacks.
I guess, hundreds of different animals around a farm, sometimes
domestic pets, sometimes wild animals in the area are found
dead all at once. The thing is this chupacabra, which
(01:45):
is a cryptive we should say, no one's ever actually
seen one, and all of the sightings and evidence that
has been collected can be easily explained away by science.
It's not that big. And from what I can tell
there people seem to believe there's just one. Did you
get that impression like there's a choop ofcabra, like there's
(02:05):
a locknus monsters are speed a different species or race
of something to where there's multiple ones. Did you that's
the impression that I have.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'm not sure I got that impression, but I'm not
sure that that that I'm right about that impression.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Can't you just say, yeah, Josh, you're right, way to go?
Is that so important for me? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, should we describe what this thing looks like since
you brought that up?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, because imagine what we're about to talk about, killing
one hundred goats the way that we said they do
in a night.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah. I've seen its short as three feet tall, but
generally about four and a half to five five and
a half feet tall, oval shaped head, glowing eyes like
sort of alien shaped eyes, which you know, put a
pin in that because that'll come back, long sharp spines,
usually from the back of its head down to the tailbone. Strong,
(03:01):
a stinky odor. A lot of people say it is
sort of like a sulfur smell. Some people say it
doesn't smell at all. And then the skin can either
be like lizardy or like a frog's, or it can
be what's been described as like a fuzzy lizard with
like little prickly hairs and scales.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Fuzzy wuzzy wizard.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But here's a key walks on two legs for the
most part, which is one of the creepy parts.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, yes, so there's a do you want to take
a break down, come back and talk about this, like
what people think it is or the origin of it
or what.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, this is not scripted, everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
All right? Take two?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Oh wait, can it start from the beginning? You have
to take it with and now cheopicabra again.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Okay, and now part two of Chop of Cabra. So
you talked about the origins. I've seen mentions of this
all the way back to the nineteen fifties in Arizona.
It seems like it really picked up steam in the
nineties as probably as the Internet picked up steam. And
(04:31):
it looks like Puerto Rico, even though it's been found
in a lot of countries, supposedly mainly in South America,
but there's a lot of stories from Puerto Rico and
may have even originated, as at least the modern online
version from a woman named Madeline Tolentino in San Juan
in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah. Apparently her description kind of set the tone for
the basis, or set the basis I guess for the time. Yeah,
of other descriptions and sightings to come that's right, very
similar to Betty and Barney Hill. She was the Betty
and Barney Hill of chupacabra sightings.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's right, she was both of them.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So yeah, Puerto Rico is a hot spot of chewpacabra sightings. Apparently,
in just one year, in one area alone, there was
several hundred livestock fatalities that were attributed to the chupacabra.
And I mean in just this one town. Just hundreds
of livestock dying in one year alone is very bizarre
(05:36):
and strange. So you can kind of guess that if
everybody's aware of the chupacabra already, they might be like,
I think this is the chupacabra at work.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, for sure. If you've been online and you've seen
pictures of like chupacabra washed up on the beach, there
are quite a few of those, and most of them
have been thoroughly debunked and proven to be It's usually
like a with mange who had rotted such that their
skin receded and it ended up looking really, really weird.
(06:07):
Those aren't chupacabra. In fact, there are no chup of cabra,
but there have been some sightings in the past couple
of years that I did look up on YouTube that
aren't compelling that like where I was like, oh my god,
it's totally real. But it was enough to where I
was like, what in the world is that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yes, In particular, there's one from twenty twenty two where
the Amberillo Zoo in Texas found an image or like
a short snippet of some creature inside its perimeter fence. Yeah,
like one in thirty in the morning. Yeah, walking around,
and it looks very much like a werewolf if you
(06:49):
ask me. It's got the big, massive, massive like back
and shoulders with its head like up around its ears. Essentially,
it's the way it's holding its arms and fingers make it.
It looks a lot to me like somebody who was
dressed up like a werewolf and got into the Amarillo
Zoo on purpose.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, okay, fair.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's been chalked up as a chupacabra siety.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's right. There was another one from twenty twenty three
in Bolivia, and this one also coincided with a bunch
of livestock death supposedly drained of their blood. This drone footage,
So it's a much higher, but it's near Auru City
and you definitely see like a shadowy figure kind of
moving through the field. And uh, I mean it's hard.
(07:33):
It's not as kind of clear clearly werewolf be looking
as the other one. But again, it was just another
recent thing. And you know, both of these could be
people screwing around with people. It could be dressing up
like what they think of Chupacabra looks like exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So I mean Chupacabra, it's a fairly you can tell
it's a fairly recent phenomenon. I mean, the nineties really
are when it started to take off, and definitely it's heyday,
but it is found itself cemented into popular culture, not
just in Latin America, but in the Southwestern United States too.
There's been sightings apparently and everywhere from Arizona to New Mexico,
(08:11):
all over the southwestern United States over the years, and
apparently the earliest, the earliest newspaper account of it dates
back to the fifties in Arizona, which I found very interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, that's right. And I've said to put a pin
in the fact that some people say they have glowing
alien like eyes. That's because some people think, you know,
there of course theories on what could be going on here.
Some people do think that it's a visitor from outer space,
or maybe a pet from a visitor from outer space.
I can you know, like et was left behind, just
(08:45):
like this chew picabra was, or that it is like
NASA was breeding like alien things with human things, and
this was one of those that got out. Supposedly, sure
as they do.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
There's a veterinarian who believes that it was a genetically
modified vampire bat because I don't remember it supposedly as
a bloodsucker, a goat sucker in particular. I believe because
of the fact that this was biggest in the nineties,
I think that whole left behind alien pet is it
(09:23):
was folklore directly influenced by porno for pyros.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh from the pet song.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, from Will Make Great Pets.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, it's a great song. But I guarantee somebody added
that to the folklore from that song.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Oh, so it was a future human that was kept
as a pet.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
No, No, just the concept that aliens even have pets. Oh,
that's why I'm linking it too, could have been a
future human. That's the thing. Everybody's just throwing anything that
can stick at the wall, at the whole cup oficabra phenomenon.
It Again, it's fairly recent enough that it hasn't taken
full solid shape. Still, it seems like to me you
(10:05):
can say, oh, it's a genetically modified vampire bat or whatever.
The best explanation I've seen. You kind of already touched
on about carcasses washed up on the beach being dogs
having mange. Coyotes get mange too, and coyotes tend to
kill live stock. Yeah, if they're from the circus, yes, yeah, yeah.
(10:27):
The telltale signed to me though, is that part of
mange is the hair on the back between the shoulders
usually remains a patch of hair. Yes, hence the spikes
of spines down well the spine and the fact that
they lose their hair so they look really weird. And
(10:47):
apparently just about every single carcass that's ever turned up
and has been attributed or chalked up as chupacabra and
the autopsy is revealed it's an animal with mange. Well done,
my friend, Thank you. Well done to you too, Charles.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I just want to say one more thing. I had
tickets to see that porner. For Pyro's reunion tour last year,
you were one of ten got canceled.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, because they couldn't sell enough tickets, right, That's what
I heard. Surprising.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, but Jane's Addiction is on tour again, and I
love those guys. I just want to publicly say give
credit to Casey Nikolee for her work and if.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The one who was erased from their.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, their history basically great, great call out. Yeah, go
read up about that because she's talking about it now
and it's not cool at all.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I also want to give a shout out. If this
kind of stuff is up your alley or float your
boat or float your alley or whatever, go check out
the site and not The Anomalist. It's an aggregator of
different weird stories, including cryptids and UFOs and all that
stuff from around the internet. It's great. Check out The Anomalist.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
It's fun.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, since Chuck said fun, I mean short stuff, friends
is out.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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