Mythical 'goat sucker' chupacabra shot by US man

London, Dec 28 (ANI): A fabled blood-sucking creature called chupacabra was shot and killed in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, after it emerged from woodland into the garden of a home.

It's equally plausible that the animal is just a raccoon but the animal, which has large ears, whiskers and a long tail, has sparked intense debate on the internet, with some claiming it is one of the mythical chupacabras.

Chupacabra means 'goat sucker' ('chupar', to suck, and 'cabra', goat).

Allegedly, it was first sighted in 1995 in Puerto Rico where eight sheep were found dead with near identical puncture wounds to the chest and completely drained of blood, but reports have been made from as far north as Maine, U.S., to the south of Chile.

'I was like "every animal has hair, especially this time of year! What puzzled me is how something like that could survive through a winter with no hair," the Daily Mail quoted Mark Cothren, who shot the creature, as saying.

Sam Clites, from Louisville Zoo, said he would have to see the animal in person to determine what species it was.

"It's hard to just what an animal is from just a photograph. This is an animal that's native to our area, most likely that is suffering from some type of disease," he said.

Cothren said he was keeping the animal so he could hand it over to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for analysis. (ANI)