Saturday, February 02, 2008

Chupacabra!

Now with new test results!

Remember Phylis Canion, the ranchwoman who wanted her dead, mangy coyote to be a chupacabra, so much so that she wasn't happy with a local college's DNA results and swore to get more tests done?

Well, she did. And the results are back. And the creature is not just a coyote. In fact, it's also part Mexican wolf! Booga booga!

From KENS-5:

Its DNA has been flown across the continent as Cuero residents search for a final answer about their mysterious, blood-sucking beast.

The much-anticipated results are back from experts at the University of California at Davis.

...

Results from the University of California at Davis show the animal is in fact a mutt: on the mother's side it is part coyote.

"On the paternal side, it had Mexican wolf in it," said Canion.

Scientists from the University of California at Davis say they can't tell when the Mexican wolf heritage made its way into the gene pool.

Canion's still not happy. She wants more tests to be done.
The Cuero rancher said she expects further testing to find out where all the hair has gone and why the animal, she says, seems to crave just blood from its victims.

And she REALLY wants it to be a chupacabra. Why, you might ask?

T-shirt sales of the chupacabra are still going strong, with more than 16,000 sold already.

There's even been legal action to keep some knock-offs from being sold on eBay where they were going for three times the price.


That's why.

4 comments:

Dave said...

Follow the money...

Sorry lady, maybe you can just put a line through the Chupacabra on the shirts and write in, Mangy Mexican Wolf. There ought to be a market for that somewhere.

AlanDP said...

That is interesting. Mexican wolves aren't supposed to range that far east, unless I'm mistaken.

It's too bad she's determined to ignore a real mystery for a fake one.

Albatross said...

I was always under the impression that the Mexican wolf was rare, so, yes, the fact that Phylis Canion's animal has some of that in it is interesting itself. That's something for biologists to get excited about. There's no need to seek an explanation in cryptozoology.

Oh wait, I forgot about the T-shirts.

AlanDP said...

I read up on them last night. They were put on the endangered species list in 1976, and according to Wikipedia, there are only some 200 surviving in the wild today.

This will still be of interest to cryptozoologists, because of the questions it will generate. How many generations ago did the wolf come into that coyote's bloodline? If a coyote in Cuero has Mexican wolf in its ancestry, then how much more widespread could this be? Could there be many other coyotes who share the same mixed heritage?

The crypto guys aren't just Bigfooters. They're interested in mysteries regarding real animals, as well.