Golf Digest recently voted the course at The Club at Runaway Bay one of the top courses in the nation, but it might also become the stomping ground for monster hunters.
Last Wednesday, Tony Potter of Runaway Bay discovered what he is calling the mythical "chupacabra" on the golf course alongside Lake Bridgeport.
Potter, a groundskeeper at the course, found the lifeless body of the strange creature.
"I found it on hole 14," Potter said. "It was something with no hair. At first I figured it was a dog."
The tan, earth-colored creature is hairless with oversized canines and a squished face like a vampire bat. It has long and slender padded feet with nearly inch-long toes, almost like fingers, tapered with sharp, curved claws, like a raccoon. The creature's hind legs appear elongated and large, like a kangaroo's. It is approximately 16 inches in length with a possum-like tail.
After further inspection, Potter concluded it was not a dog.
"This is a weird little critter," Potter said. "This is not a coyote. This is not a dog."
He considered that it might be a hairless raccoon. He immediately showed the finding to Runaway Bay mayor Lynn Jowett. Jowett has a degree in biology.
"I didn't know what it was," Jowett said. "I'd never seen anything like that. It was totally hairless.
"I certainly didn't know what the animal was. It's skin was real smooth. Rigamortis hadn't set in."
Jowett suggested Potter have a veterinarian take a look at it. So the next day he took it to Bridgeport Animal Hospital. But it only left the doctors perplexed.
"It was cold and limp when we saw it," said Dr. Heidi Shipp. "But it had no wounds, no trauma. I don't know how it died, but maybe from the freeze since it had no fur."
She had no clue what the creature was.
"It's not a cat; it's not a dog," Shipp said. "It's not any kind of domestic animal that I'm aware of. It looked like a combination of a coatimundi, a raccoon and a possum."
Chupacabra is Spanish for "goat sucker." The creature is infamous for sucking the blood from livestock. There have been many sightings of the mysterious creature throughout Texas during the past few years. The legend was first reported in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s, and has since spread throughout Latino communities.
People have attempted to debunk the creature, saying it is a coyote or some other animal with a severe case of mange, but Shipp said it had no signs of mange.
"I don't think it had mange because the skin was not irritated at all," she said. "It's some sort of mystery. It could be the chupacabra."
Nature of the beast
Some have suggested the animal is nothing more than a Mexican hairless dog, also called a Xoloitzcuintli, or Xolo for short. The Xolo is one of the oldest purebreed dogs, dating back more than 3,500 years. The Aztecs, Mayans and other ancient New World civilizations considered the animal sacred. It is a rare breed today.
Patty Hoover of Washington State has been breeding Xolos for 20 years. She has owned more than 165 championship Xolos. After examining several photographs of the animal found in Runaway Bay, she said the animal does not appear to be a Xolo.
"I see a few premolars there," she said. "Hairless Xolos seldom have premolars. There have been several 'finds' in the past few years of hairless animals that resemble Xolos. I suspect there might be coyote/Xolo hybrids running in (rural) areas.
"The head shape looks like a coyote to me, and the impressive canines could be mature coyote canines."
However, the animal did not appear to be mature yet.
Ken Gerhard of San Antonio is a cryptozoologist, someone who investigates and studies mysterious animals. He's been featured on History Channel's "The Real Wolfman" and "Monster Quest" and the Travel Channel's "Legend Hunters."
Gerhard specializes in mysterious Texas creatures. He's followed the trail of the chupacabra for years. He is currently working on a special about the creature with the National Geographic Channel.
He said there has been a rise in the number of sightings of these creatures. He has examined the remains of three of these animals in recent months. However, as far as he knows, none have been captured alive.
"They are definitely reproducing at a rapid rate," Gerhard said. "Over the past three months, there has been a flurry of sightings. But they were all in Southern and Central Texas. This is the furthest one north I have heard of."
He's actually stopped referring to them as chupacabra. He believes it's an entirely new species of animal. He calls them "Texas blue dogs" because they have a bluish tint to their flesh.
He's heard the explanation that they are merely coyotes with mange, but like the vet who examined the body, he said the animals don't look like they have suffered mange, especially a young specimen such as the one found in Runaway Bay.
Gerhard is not sure of the origin of the Texas blue dogs.
"It could be a genetic mutation of some animal," Gerhard said. "It could be an animal that has changed in response to some sort of environmental pollution. We just don't know."
Despite the odd, chimera-like features of the creature, it might only be a hairless raccoon.
Potter didn't know what to do with the animal, so on Sunday night the animal was transported to the Center for Animal Research and Education (CARE) in Bridgeport.
From there, photographs of the creature were sent to university researchers and veterinarians across the country. But none of them could identify the animal. The story appeared Sunday on the Messenger Web site. This prompted television news crews to cover the story. It soon went nationwide.
By Monday night, Heidi Berry, executive director at CARE, had received hundreds of e-mails offering answers to the mystery, including one from the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife commission.
In 2007, a very similar creature was discovered alive in Kentucky. The University of Kentucky diagnostic laboratory researched the animal.
"After much research and tips, the researchers at (CARE) have found the following answer," Berry said. "Even though it is in front of our eyes, it is hard to believe this thing could possibly be a hairless raccoon."
This is the same conclusion drawn by some of the first people to see the creature in Runaway Bay.
However, until a DNA test is conducted, it's impossible to prove. And why would there be a rash of hairless raccoons appearing across the state of Texas?
Gerhard still believes it is a canine of some type. So did the local game warden, initially.
Wise County game warden Penny Nixon said these types of animals have been found in the past, and they "are generally always coyotes."
"We don't know if it is a genetic anomaly or caused by an outside factor," Nixon said.
A biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department examined the carcass Tuesday morning at the U.S. Forest Service in Decatur. She said it wasn't a coyote.
"I didn't expect to have the body of a chupacabra on my desk today," said wildlife biologist Jennifer Barrow.
But Barrow quickly debunked the possible presence of the mythical creature. She said the feet, skull and dental formation all matched a raccoon.
"Every genus has one dental formation," Barrow said, "the same number and types of teeth."
She said the Runaway Bay specimen matched perfectly.
She couldn't say how the animal lost its hair, since it did not appear to have the mange.
"It's an anomaly," she said. "The chupacabra is a fun legend, but it is only a legend, right up there with sasquatch."
Creatures on the rise
A mystery still persists. Such hairless creatures, even if only a raccoon, continue to be frequently spotted. This is not the only account of hairless animals living in Wise County.
Rodney Davis owns an 80-acre tree farm in Alvord. His wide swath of rural, tree-covered land is adjacent to the LBJ Grasslands. It provides ample ground for mysterious creatures to roam.
"A few of us have gotten a good look at it," Davis said. "At first I thought it was just a coyote with mange."
But once he saw the photos posted on the Messenger Web site, he knew it was the same type of creature, and he no longer thought it was a coyote with mange.
"A couple months ago we were seeing it in the morning and in the evening time," Davis said. "We saw it several times over a couple of weeks, but we haven't seen it since."
Once his son saw it lapping water from a pond on the property. The creature looked his son in the eyes and casually trotted off. Another time, Davis and some of his Latino workers saw the animal on top of a hill. He also said one of his neighbors has had several chickens disappear, which falls in line with the chupacabra legend.
"They had me pretty convinced it was the chupacabra," Davis said.
Once he saw the creature running. He said the creature he saw had a larger snout than the one found in Runaway Bay.
Gerhard said he has personally examined three Texas blue dogs. He said each one has slightly different characteristics, such as various sized haunches, teeth and snouts.
The creature is very elusive. Davis went so far as setting up motion cameras at areas where they had seen the animal, but he never captured any images.
Although conclusions vary, numbers are on the rise, and the range is growing of the strange hairless animals.
