This looks like a doubly unfortunateraccoon so far and the previous beasty whose image we have seen may also besome other unfortunate. None of thesecritters are even slightly convincing as a blood sucker or the so called Chupacabra. For that I am becoming more convinced thatthe only prospect is a giant version of the vampire bat whose distribution islow making actual occurrences rare but dramatic.
Certainly the smaller versions are aboutand easily studied and fit the behavior pattern. Gigantism would appear a natural evolutionarystep which has occurred with most species. The necessary game has always been available and the losses of cattlegive us a fair idea of the size of the attacker.
A separate issue is the full loss of furon this and on other victims. I am nottoo comfortable with the mange story and we are possibly dealing with a nastydisease as yet unidentified.
Manbags backyard mystery beast
Posted: Dec 23, 2010 12:11 PMPSTUpdated: Dec 23, 2010 12:11 PM PST
Has a mythicalcreature made its way to Kentucky
Some people seem tothink so after a Nelson County
Mark Cothren shot andkilled an animal on December 18.
He said the animalwalked from the woods onto his Lebanon
"I was like:'Every animal has hair, especially this time of year!' What puzzled me is howsomething like that could survive through a winter with no hair," Cothrensaid. Everybody is getting very curious, you know. The phone is ringingoff the hook. It's kind of a mystery right now."
Cothren described thecreature as having large ears, whiskers, a long tail, and about the size of ahouse cat.
He says many peoplehave tried to guess what the animal may be.
He said he's heardanything from raccoon to a dog to the legendary Chupacabras.
"Everybody isleaning kind of toward that - it's the Chupacabras! People have come up to mesaying 'That's what the thing is 'cause I pulled it up on the Internet'"Cothren laughed.
Legend has it theChupacabras - also known as the "Goat Sucker" - kills goats and suckstheir blood.
The fabled creaturehas supposedly been spotted in South America , Mexico , Puerto Rico, as well as Texas and Oklahoma
"It's hard tojudge what an animal is from just a photograph," said Sam Clites with the Louisville
Clites say he wouldhave to see the animal in person to study it and determine its species.
At first glance, hebelieved the animal could be a raccoon or a dog, but not a mythical creature
"This is ananimal that's native to our area, most likely that is suffering from some typedisease," Clites said.
Clites says it isn'tuncommon for an animal with a severe disease to lose fur and lookunrecognizable.
| Cothren says he has spoken with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and is preserving the animal to hand over to them. |
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