You know that thing in south Texas that people think is a chupacabra?
It’s a raccoon with a hair-loss problem.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at this beast:
Via Huffington Post
That’s not the chupacabra’s dad, nor is it any other mysterious or mythical creature. That’s what a bear looks like under all that fur.
!["Lounging spectacled bear" by Tambako the Jaguar [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via Flickr](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/3614093778_4d98309aec_z.jpg "\"Lounging spectacled bear\" by Tambako the Jaguar [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via Flickr")
A raccoon looks just about as unfamiliar without all the hair. Or fur. I’m not sure which mammals have what.
Anyway, the couple that caught the raccoon that is not a chupacabra had it euthanized, which doesn’t sound at all like something an actual chupacabra would allow to happen, does it?
As long as we’re at it, those bison in Yellowstone National Park were not fleeing an impending supervolcano explosion, so you still have to go to work/school on Monday.
UPDATE (04/06/2014): People are still posting links to the chupacabra story, so I did a little more research on “hairless raccoons” (i.e. I Googled “hairless raccoon.”) It turns out that they are considered rare, but they do turn up among humans now and then. The Humane Society in Vero Beach, Florida caught one that was found in a dumpster in November 2011, for example.
© Humane Society, via veronews.com
Look familiar? The article even acknowledges that it looks like a chupacabra, so the recent events in Texas don’t even involve original ideas. This little guy reportedly ended up at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, so at least his story got a happy ending.
Sometime around June 2013, a person in Toronto spotted a hairless raccoon in their apartment complex (via boredpanda.org):
Via boredpanda.org
This little guy might have hair loss for some reason other than the hairless raccoons of the southern U.S. The article at boredpanda.org suggests alopecia.
My point being: Not only was the creature in south Texas not a chupacabra, it wasn’t even something heretofore unknown to human society. Go on about your business.
Photo credits: “Dolores the Bear” via Huffington Post; “Lounging spectacled bear” by Tambako the Jaguar [CC BY-ND 2.0], via Flickr; “Hairless raccoon,” © Humane Society, via veronews.com; “This is What a Bald Raccoon Looks Like,” via boredpanda.org.
