What is that thing!?!

Depredation of calves and lambs is a common problem this time of year in Southwest Missouri and we often get calls to help farmers and ranchers with predator control. Recently while on one of these jobs we encountered something that seems a little too weird to actually be true. It is common for us to use motion activated cameras in order to figure out exactly what we are dealing with when starting a predator control job. The use of cameras is helpful for us as we are determining the best solution to the problem. Our clients usually enjoy seeing what kinds of wildlife they have on their property, but this time I think they would have rather remained "in the dark". This is one of those situations where it might have been better to just not know.

After a few nights of having cameras on the 240 acre farm outside of Seneca, MO, we were hoping to have some pictures of the predator(s) that had been killing lambs. Instead we got this picture. At first glance we thought it was a coyote, but after a closer look we realized this animal was hairless and had features that weren't consistent with most coyotes. Could this be the mythical Chupacabra? There have been numerous claims of Chupacabras in the southwest, but sightings this far north are rare. The first thing we decided was that if the killing was being done by a Chupacabra we were in for a challenge. Often times catching the offending predator when dealing with coyotes or bobcats killing calves or lambs can be stressful and time consuming, but dealing with a mythical creature would be a nightmare.

After consulting with the landowner we made the decision to set a variety of traps around the property. The landowner wanted the killing stopped, but if the killing was being done by a Chupacabra, the priority was to get that thing off his property! With traps set we went for a number of days with no unusual activity, our cameras caught the occasional raccoon, skunk, opossum and coyote, and a few of those critters got caught going after the bait in the cages and they were released unharmed each morning. Then it happened one morning while checking cage traps we came across something we had never seen before, it was a hairless critter, with human like hands and some canine like characteristics, but it sat on it's hind legs and used it's hands to eat. What is this thing? Is it the mythical Chupacabra? You decide.....

April Fools Day Post 04/01/16

The story is entirely fictional and the photgraphs in this blog post were found on the internet by searching "Chupacabra". The game camera photo is a female coyote suffering from Sarcoptic Mange also known as Scabies in humans. The pictures of the animal in a cage trap are actually a raccoon also suffering from Sarcoptic Mange. Mange is caused by tiny mites that cause the animal to lose their hair. Infected animals can spread the disease and it is almost always lethal in wild animals.