This nocturnal monster is known to pick off livestock in a very vampiric way.
We’re very excited to announce that YETI, known for their ridiculously strong and durable coolers, bottles, bags, chairs, and other much-needed outdoor gear, is this season’s sponsor.
To welcome YETI to our campfire, we naturally asked if they’d heard of any monsters prowling around their hometown of Austin, Texas. They told us this story of a close encounter with a creature you’ve probably heard rumors about. A nocturnal monster known to pick off livestock in a very vampiric way. Do we believe the story? Well, listen for yourself: do you?
Learn more about YETI.
Welcome back to our mini-monster series. We here at Camp Monsters know that mysterious creatures are a year-round interest, so we’re making sure that you have a new monster in your feed every month until our full season launches this September. And now, we’re very excited to announce that YETI, known for their ridiculously strong and durable coolers, bottles, bags, chairs, and other much-needed outdoor gear, is this season’s sponsor. You’ll be hearing more from them in our full length episodes later this year, and we’re happy to have them join us around the Camp Monsters campfire—which in this case, is in the form of their super comfortable camp chairs, as well as a couple of Tundra Hard Coolers, whose primary purpose is to keep our food and drinks ice cold but double as excellent fireside seats. If you’re looking for gear that will last as long as your passion for the outdoors, YETI has you covered.
To welcome YETI to our campfire, we naturally asked if they’d heard of any monsters prowling around their hometown of Austin, Texas. They told us this story of a close encounter with a creature you’ve probably heard rumors about. A nocturnal monster known to pick off livestock in a very vampiric way. Do we believe the story? Well… listen for yourself: do you?
Welcome to the Camp Monsters podcast…
Bryan was a practical man. From a long line of practical people. You have to be practical to live alone on acreage out in the hot scrubland of central Texas, beyond the furthest southwest outskirts of Austin. But it was land that Bryan had known all his life, and it was peaceful... most of the time.
Until something started to go after his goats. It was the strangest thing-- all of a sudden one morning there were three of them-- goats-- out in a field not too far from the house, set down together in a little circle on their haunches just like they were resting. But they didn’t move at all as he drove up on his little four-wheeled utility vehicle, and as he got close he could see that there was no sign of life. There were no marks of violence or attack either-- what was this?
His mind flashed to disease, and he stooped to lift one of the poor carcasses into his UTV to see if he could get it tested at the local agriculture extension. He braced himself for the animal’s weight-- even a smallish goat like this one is plenty to lift-- but when he heaved he was shocked at how easily the body moved, at how light it was in his arms. Like it was completely dried out, mummified, or… well, the Texas sun is very hot, but it couldn’t dry a body out like this in the course of a single morning. And as he lay the carcass down in the bed of his UTV, he saw the little marks: two small, bloodless holes in the animal’s neck. And Bryan, practical man though he was, couldn’t help but wonder.
Chupacabra. That’s Spanish for “goat sucker”. Bryan had heard the rumours of the creature, the same rumours you’ve probably heard-- that it was some kind of half-dog, half-lizard vampire that came by night to feast on livestock, sucking them dry with a single bite to the neck. Old Man Haney, Bryan’s nearest neighbor to the south, had been on a Chupacabra kick for months, stopping Bryan along the fence line or on the road into town to tell him all about how there was a Chupacabra living in the thickets along the little creek bed, coming out at night to prowl around Haney’s house and torment him. Bryan listened politely, but kept in mind that before this it had been bigfoot that Old Haney had trouble with, and before that it was the devil himself that Haney had seen at the bottom of an abandoned well on his property. So Bryan had been sceptical to say the least. But now…
Back at the house and a few internet searches later, Bryan knew all about the Chupacabra. Unlike most legendary creatures, the Chupacabra hasn’t been around for long. No early folklore, no accounts recorded by settlers long ago-- the Chupacabra rumours appeared suddenly in the 1990s, beginning around a little town in eastern Puerto Rico called Canovanas. A flock of sheep were found dead, unmarked except for two puncture wounds on their neck. While the people of Canovanas scratched their heads about what had happened, a woman came forward claiming to have seen the creature responsible for the mysterious deaths. She described something like a hairless alien dog with huge red eyes that reared up on two legs and leapt off into the night when she spotted it. She said it had dark, leathery skin and spikes down its back. She was laughed at, of course… until more and more livestock in the area began to be attacked, and more and more people began to report sightings.
By the 2000s the story and the sightings had reached the mainland, mostly in Texas. People began to call in to local police and animal control about a large, hairless dog they’d seen along a road or in their yard at night, with red eyes and fangs and a spine that stuck out like spikes from its thick, mottled skin. A dog so big that it’s paw prints looked closer to those of a mountain lion, with claws long and dangerous -- claws that scraped the paint off of barn doors where terrified animals pressed themselves against back walls, quivering away from the creature outside.
All of that was a lot for Bryan to swallow, even after his strange experience with the goats in his field. A mysterious vampire dog? It was hard for Bryan not to roll his eyes. He was a practical man, and a firm believer that most things could be explained with some research and a little science. In fact, scientists had already explained away the Chupacabra myth -- the alleged monster was nothing more than a mangy coyote, inflicted with a parasite that caused their hair to fall out and their skin to grow leathery, with hunger causing their spine to stick out from their emaciated bodies. Nocturnal killer aliens that leapt like kangaroos? No. Basically, they were just sick dogs-- something Bryan could easily handle. With this in the back of his mind, he packed his UTV up for a couple of nights out on the land. He wasn’t sure of the best way to catch these sick puppies, but decided he might as well start by camping out in the field where he’d found the goats. So-- taking his dog Ryder-- he drove off under the cloudless sky of a beautiful Texas evening.
When he reached the field -- a worn down old pasture surrounded by scrub oak-- he found a small group of his goats already there. It was a pleasant enough place to set up camp -- as the sun crept lower in the sky the temperature crept closer to pleasant. Bryan had everything ready for night just as it arrived. He watched the last of the sunset drain out of the sky and saw the pinprick of stars start to dot it. The forecast had called for another beautiful night, which meant Bryan was tent-free -- something he thought was necessary given that the purpose of this expedition was to catch whatever it was that was stalking his herd. He couldn’t do that from inside a tent.
Bryan settled down in his camp chair with every intention of staying awake. But it’s funny how the quiet of an empty night can lull you. He was comfortable out here on the land, and it was so warm and the starry sky was so bright-- even though he had poured himself a large coffee, it sat beside him untouched as he began to doze, lightly. He wasn’t sure how much of the night had passed when a low growl startled him fully awake. It came from his dog, Ryder, sitting just beside his chair in the darkness. Ryder was anxious and alert, hackles up, staring off into the darkness, growling into the night. Bryan switched on his headlamp, swinging his head and the powerful beam left and right as he scanned the clearing. Nothing. Even the goats had moved off somewhere else. Just scrub oaks and shadows.
He switched off the light, waiting for his eyes to re-adjust to the darkness. But the dog kept growling, and while Bryan was still blinking away the bright shadows of the light, Ryder’s growl turned to sharp yips -- his alerting noise. He was warning Bryan that something was coming closer-- something that wasn’t supposed to be there. Bryan turned the light back on and swung his head around, scanning the darkness one more time. And his heart dropped. About 50 feet from where he sat were a pair of red eyes -- not the white reflection he had been expecting. Deep, blood-red eyes, unblinking. Staring right at him. And so much higher than where a dog’s eyes would be -- these were 4 or 5 feet off the ground. Something enormous, then, or... or something standing up on its hind legs?
Whatever it was, Bryan wasn’t scared of it-- that is, he wasn’t scared until he saw the eyes begin to move-- begin to bound-- toward him. Little jumps at first, then gathering into ever-increasing leaps that brought the eyes rapidly toward him, until he began to make out the shape of the creature around the eyes… the shape not of a dog or a sickly coyote but of something completely different, something that moved like nothing he’d ever seen before. The Chupacabra.
Bryan stood up. He stumbled back over his chair. The creature was almost to him now and Bryan turned and ran as he had never run in his life. He thought of jumping in the UTV but there was no time, he’d never make it in before the thing was on him. So he ran, blindly, away from camp, with Ryder at his heels. His ears were filled with his own breathing and with… footsteps. His own, and Ryder’s, and… and the strange, horrible bounds of the creature leaping after them. Was it gaining?
Bryan felt-- he tasted that back-of-the-throat fear that burned more than his lungs, more than his legs as they crashed through the brush, running faster than he’d ever known he could, almost flying through the tall brown grass and weeds. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do. He was running for his life. And his instincts had been right. He was running, without knowing it, in the direction of his house. The faint yellow light of the porchlight shone now in the distance like a beacon. He had to make it to that light. He was going to make it to that light. He heard Ryder panting behind him, reassuring him. And maybe that assurance slowed him down. Just slightly. Just for a moment. But a moment was all it took.
Bryan felt it above him at first -- something dark and heavy launching itself over the top of his head. He was too terrified and exhausted to scream as a large creature thudded down in front of him. Bryan dug his heels into the dirt, feeling Ryder’s body slam into the back of his calves as he skidded to a stop. And there it was -- this thing. This... monster. It had landed on all fours, but as it turned to face him it rose up on its hind legs, squinting and snarling in the bright light of Bryan’s headlamp. Bryan took it all in -- the thick, grey skin with sharp spikes coming out of its paws and back… those huge red eyes, sizing him up. But most terrifying of all were the fangs -- long and white and sharp, standing out against the snarl that stretched the creature’s face.
When it sprang at him, there was nothing that Bryan could do. He felt himself knocked backwards, he saw the stars in the sky above him and felt something catch in his throat. He struggled for his next breath and when it finally came it almost choked him with a sound like a tremendous snore.
… And it was that snore that woke him, with his head pitched over the back of his camp chair and his eyes opening from deep sleep onto the sea of stars above him... and his heart racing from the incredibly vivid reality of that terrible dream. He sat up straight, looked all around him, then switched on his headlamp and looked around some more. Relief flooded him and he smiled, even laughed a little bit, fell back in his chair and felt Ryder’s warm breath on his dangling hand. He reached down to give the dog a pat, then pulled his hand away quickly. Pulled his hand away and swung his headlamp in that direction… just in time to catch the light in those huge, blood-red eyes set in that strange, leathery face.
If you like these mini-monster episodes, you’ll like our full-length shows even more, Season One is available now and Season Two, brought to you by YETI, is coming in September of 2020. Please subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen: it’s your support that keeps these spooky stories on-air.
Our mini-monster series is written and produced by Chelsea Davis. These sounds are engineered by the very talented Nick Patri from Cloud Studios. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby.
We got our mini-monster facts this month from the BBC, How Stuff Works and Wikipedia. Links to our sources will be in our show notes if you want to learn more about the Chupacabra and decide whether or not you believe in the mangy coyote story or think it’s something a bit more… ominous. I’m Weston Davis. Thank you for listening, and see you next month.