A Texas family believes they have captured the mythical chupacabra, which is rumored to suck the blood from goats and other livestock.
Jackie Stock said her husband, Arlen Parma captured the animal in a humane trap on their property, ABC7 reported.
"He called me to come and look, and I said, 'Bubba, that looks like a baby chupacabra,'" Stock told ABC.
The animal is completely hairless, with black skin, raccoon-like hands, and big eyes. In a video taken of the animal it can be heard emitting a sinister growl. The family has been keeping the animal on their property and providing it with a nutritious diet of "cat food and corn"; they plan to keep the hairless animal there until someone can figure out what it is.
"A coon don't make that noise, or a possum. What makes that noise? I guess a chupacabra does, I don't know," Parma told the news station.
Wildlife experts are not as convinced that the unsightly creature is the mythical chupacabra.
"The animal in the cage as best I can tell from the view was some sort of a small canine," Brent Ortego, a wildlife diversity biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, told ABC7.
Ortego believes the animal is small dog, coyote, or fox, that has mange, which causes fur loss.
"It's never been proven to be a unique species. It was always something out there that allegedly either caused harm or threatened to cause harm to people or their livestock," Ortego said.
The legend of the chupacabra is believed to have originated in the early 1990s when animals in Puerto Rico were found with their blood drained and strange puncture wounds in their necks. The name chupacabra literally translates to "goat sucker" in Spanish, Animal Planet reported.
Since the original incidents the animal has been suspected to have been present in "Mexico, Chile, Brazil and into the United States," Animal Planet reported. U.S in which the chupacabra is believed to have claimed victims include; "Texas to Florida, Michigan, Maine and even Oregon," Animal Planet reported.
WATCH:
