Hunters Baffled By Chupacabra-Like Find

Vets in Ukraine are struggling to identify a ‘mutant’ animal shot by hunters in a remote area of the former Soviet republic.  

Locals say it is a mystery ‘Chupacabra’ –  allegedly sighted a few times in recent years – that preys on rabbits, goats and house animals.

Grey in colour and with ‘fangs’ and a longish neck, it has shorter front legs, slightly resembling a kangaroo, while also showing a likeness to a dog and a fox, say those who have seen it. 

 There were claims that it could be a ‘mutant’ fox poisoned by radiation, while another theory was that it maybe a hybrid originating from a Soviet plant conducting tests on animals relating to chemical or biological weapons development.  

‘A creature we were not supposed to see has escaped from a secret defence lab,’ said one comment. ‘The animal doesn’t look like a fox or a wolf, or a raccoon,’  Mikhail Ilchenko, deputy head of the district veterinary service in Mikhailovskoe, told Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ukraine.

‘It cannot even be a marten.  I have never seen such animal before. But, judging by the fangs, I can definitely say that it is a predator.’  ‘But I cannot identify what kind of animal it is. For example, its canine teeth are similar similar to a fox, but smaller in size – like a marten.  

‘Yet a marten has a different type of skull. If to compare with an otter’s head, then the ears are too small. It has a wide nose and a stretched muzzle.

‘My opinion is that its most likely a hybrid animal or a mutant.’

Reports of such a creature – but with varying descriptions – have appeared in the Ukrainian media in recent years.  

One lurid and unconfirmed version is that it sucked blood from chickens and rabbits and domestic animals which it killed  in remote villages.  

It has been described as orange or grey in colour, with front shorter than hind legs, and with an ability to jump resembling a kangaroo.

Dogs are reported to have been frightened of it, according to villagers.  

The ‘Chupacabra’ – which is Spanish for goat sucker – is a legendary cryptid rumoured to inhabit parts of North and South America.