Chupacabra

Official artwork

## Reference

**Chupacabra** are a type of cryptid that first appear in Discount Armageddon.

## Appendix Entry

**Chupacabra** (*Chupacabra sapiens*). True to folklore, chupacabra are blood-suckers, with stomachs that do not handle solids well. They are also therianthrope shapeshifters, capable of transforming themselves into human form, which explains why they have never been captured. When cornerd, most chupacabra will assume their bipedal shape in self-defense. A surprising number of chupacabra are involved in ballroom dance.

## About

Chupacabra are one of two known sigbinian, or blood-sucking, therianthropes. Their primary form can pass as perfectly human. Their shifted form is a large, scaled, pseudo-canine that resembles a cross between a Gila monster and a coyote, and they are classed as reptiles despite their many mammalian features.

They integrate seamlessly into the human population rather than clustering together and tend to effectively police their own. They typically take human or other therianthrope partners and only come together with their own kind during mating season.

Chupacabra bear live young and nurse them despite not being mammals. They have shorter lifespans than humans but are immune to most common diseases. They are also resistant to most venoms.

## Characters

* James Garcia, Verity's dance partner in New York
* Princess Leya-you-out, a member of the Portland Roller Derby Community
* Malena, one of Verity's fellow contestants on *Dance or Die*.
* An unnamed chupacabra Elvis impersonator who officiated Verity and Dominic's wedding

## Trivia

* Sometimes called "goat suckers", which is a literal translation of their Spanish name.

## Quotes

* **Verity:** "If wishes were horses, we'd have a much easier time feeding the chupacabras."
* "Chupacabra never raise their young in the presence of both biological parents--something about it increasing the odds of the pups being eaten before they're old enough to become intelligent."

## In Popular Culture

The **chupacabra** or **chupacabras** (literally 'goat-sucker'; from Spanish: *chupar*, 'to suck', and *cabras*, 'goats') is a legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas, with its first purported sightings reported in Puerto Rico in 1995. The name comes from the animal's reported vampirism—the chupacabra is said to attack and drink the blood of livestock, including goats.

The bipedal form can be traced to the movie "Species" in Puerto Rico in 1995. It featured a green, bipedal monster with huge eyes and spinal spikes. After the film came out, an eyewitness reported seeing a creature she called "El Vampiro de Moca" attacking livestock and draining its victims of blood in the manner of a vampire. A Puerto Rican newspaper reported on her sighting.

The chupacabra is arguably the first cryptid to go viral in the internet age; while stories such as the Abominable Snowman might take generations to spread, the chupacabra was widely reported on Latin American television outlets and had numerous webpages in the earliest days of the internet, thus expanding the reach of its legend.

Original descriptions were of a three-to-four foot tall gargoyle-like reptile or an alien kangaroo. As the legend traveled from Latin America into the southern United States, the description shifted to that of a blue hairless dog. These have proven easier to "catch" than the Latin American variation and specimens have been taxidermized and toured with museum exhibits.

There have been chupacabra exhibits at the San Antonio Zoo and at the Kingdom Zoo Wildlife Center.

Chupacabra also have a history in Mexican myth and are likely connected to and the Taino tales of the "Moboya."

## References

1. ↑ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/chupacabra
2. ↑ Appendix Field Guide: Books 1-2, 5-11
3. ↑ Midnight Blue-Light Special Ch. 4
4. ↑ Midnight Blue-Light Special Ch. 12
5. ↑ Chupacabra
6. ↑ MEL Magazine. “The Sexy Sci-Fi Origins of the Chupacabra Legend,” October 31, 2020. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/what-is-chupacabra-species-movie.
7. ↑ Halls, Kelly Milner (2019). *Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide to 50 Fascinating Beasts.* Seattle: Sasquatch Books. pp. 45-46. ISBN 978-1632172105.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Coleman, Loren and Jerome Clark (1999). *Cryptozoology A-Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Ness Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature.* New York: Fireside. ISBN 978-068486025
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ocker, J.W. (2022). *The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters.* Philadelphia: Quirk Books. ISBN 978-1683693222.
10. ↑  Radford, Benjamin. *Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore*. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011.