Last Podcast On The Left
Last Podcast On The Left
"The Puerto Rican Chupacabra is much more rare. The Texas Chupacabra, I'd call my brother about it a couple days ago, he said about every 18 months some dumbass redneck shows up on the news saying, 'Oh yeah, I killed a Chupacabra.'" — Ben Kissel
"The Chupacabra is a sometimes small, sometimes large cryptid of the vampiric variety that is said to suck the blood of farm animals by punting their necks with long fangs, and this is where the Chupacabra gets its name from, as 'Chupacabra' translates literally as goat-sucker." — Marcus Parks
"And the idea is that when you see a cryptid, you see UFOs, because there's something about either everybody's jumping in on the lean train, or it's a really there's a weird energy happening." — Henry Zebrowski
The episode begins by differentiating the Puerto Rican Chupacabra from the Texan variety, noting that the latter is often attributed to misidentified canids. The discussion then focuses on the Puerto Rican version, which is described as a vampiric cryptid that drains the blood of livestock through puncture wounds. Early accounts from Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s describe a creature that is three feet tall, walks on two legs with a hopping motion, possesses large black eyes, bony fingers, long limbs, and a spiny line down its back. The name "Chupacabra" itself means "goat-sucker" in Spanish, stemming from its reported habit of preying on farm animals.
Several theories are presented to explain the Chupacabra's existence. One prominent hypothesis links the sightings to experimental animals, possibly from government facilities like Roosevelt Roads naval station, where creatures might have been engineered for military purposes. Another theory suggests escaped primates from the Caribbean Primate Research Center, possibly altered or weaponized. The possibility of large, undocumented bat species, specifically vampire bats, is also explored, given the island's extensive cave systems and the known behavior of bats. The show also touches upon the connection between cryptid sightings and UFO phenomena, citing reports of glowing discs and unusual blood found at alleged crash sites.
The episode further delves into other potential explanations, including the "thylacine conspiracy," which posits that genetically modified extinct Australian dogs were tested in Puerto Rico and then released. The creature's reported ability to shift from four legs to two, and the presence of stripes mistaken for spines, are cited as similarities. Finally, the program explores the idea that Bigfoot and the Chupacabra might be the same entity, with reports of tall, hairy creatures shrinking to Chupacabra size and exhibiting similar behaviors. The discussion concludes by acknowledging the difficulty in definitively identifying the Chupacabra, leaving its true nature as a subject of ongoing speculation.