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The chupacabra — or chupacabras — is a bloodthirsty cryptid (17) .......... held responsible for a series of livestock killings, particularly of sheep and goats. It occupies that unsettling borderland between myth and plausibility shared by creatures such as the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster and the mermaid, with one crucial distinction: it is a (18) .......... recent addition to the menagerie of monsters.
The first reported sightings date only to 1995, on the island of Puerto Rico, but (19) .......... have since proliferated across South America, the United States and, most recently, Russia and southern Europe. If the chupacabra is genuine, it displays a remarkable geographic range for any wild animal. The (20) .......... authority on the subject has described it as 'the first internet monster', attributing the rapid global spread of reports to the rise of online search.
As with most creatures of this kind, physical evidence is vanishingly scarce, eyewitness accounts are vague and frequently contradictory, and the animal has, of course, (21) .......... evaded all attempts at capture.
Part of the case for the creature's (22) .......... rests on its alleged feeding habits: the name itself translates literally as 'goat sucker', in reference to its supposed practice of draining victims of blood. Dead livestock have featured in chupacabra reports since the creature's earliest (23) .......... in the press. Scientific investigation, however, consistently points to domestic dogs or coyotes as the most plausible culprits.
The chupacabra, it seems, is (24) .......... a case of mistaken identity — though, as with all enduring monsters, the legend refuses to die.