Paul Jay's Ponderings

From some of the more recent and less far out descriptions of "chupacabra", I went on a hunch and guessed that it probably had a lot in common with shrews of all things. It just happens to be a shrew the size of a dog. Looking things over, it probably isn't quite a member of the Sorcidae family. But in viewing over members of that family I did find another family called Solenodontidae. And guess what? The only known surviving members of animals in this mostly extinct family can only be found in the Caribbean on the islands of Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba. This coincides remarkably well with the Caribbean and Central American origins of the Chupacabra. A larger unknown member of the Sonodon family would have all the traits (strange calls, musky goat-like odor, aloofness, nocturnal, hiding in burrows, scrambling gait) that match those of the latest mammalian Chupacabra descriptions. Being that Solenodons are poisonous, it would also explain its quirky hunting behavior. Prey is paralyzed by the venomous bite, and therefore doesn't put up much resistance (if any.) This critter can pretty much do whatever it wants afterwards. It may actually be a living member of a Solenodon species considered long extinct.

Labels: animal, chupacabra, creature, critter, taxonomy