MoSpur
11-02-2007, 12:00 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA110107.dnaresults.kens.1cc40a72d.html
Mysterious animal found by Cuero rancher identified
Web Posted: 11/02/2007 11:57 AM CDT
Joe Conger
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
Sick animal or sensational new species?
Cuero has found itself in the center of a phenomenon created when residents discovered livestock drained of blood, and hairless animals roaming around.
According to Phylis Canion, her ranch had been pestered for years by the creature that stole her cats and sucked her chickens dry.
The big-game hunter plans to mount the animal's head, if she can just figure out what it is.
"And when people came in and looked at the pictures, when I first brought this one back to the ranch, that's what everybody said, 'Ohmigosh, that's the chupacabra,' " Canion said. "Well, is that what it is? We don't know what it is, but that's what we'll call it."
KENS 5 decided to put an end to the speculation and sent samples for DNA testing.
"The answer is, ultimately, what is it most closely related to? What does the DNA reveal?" said Michael Forstner, a biology professor at Texas State University.
Scientists from Texas State University began a time-consuming process of determining what is the beast that lurked in the pastures and fields around Cuero.
"I hope that the end result of this, from our side, is that assumptions or fears, however you want to think about it, change. And that we have taken something that is unknown and potentially scary and used technology and scientific approaches to evaluate what it really is," said Forstner.
The find out the result is meticulous work. On the cellular level, the sample is purified, replicated, and the result is a map of the animal's DNA structure, to be compared against other animals.
"It's not like they make it look like on 'CSI,' " Forstner said.
KENS viewers certainly had their opinions, ranging from a mangy red fox, a Chihuahua and even a hairless Peruvian Inca dog.
"It's not a wolf. It's a Chupacabra," said an unidentified student at Cuero High School.
One viewer wrote in to say it's a "stupid fraud" being carried on by the station.
"In the end, the most important thing is that we don't jump to any assumptions in science," said Forstner. "It's about revealing the mystery, and taking the mystery and making it a known."
It is not just residents in Cuero waiting to know what the animal is. So is the world.
Global attention descended upon the town of 6,000, from late-night talk show humor, radio broadcasts and blogs on the World Wide Web.
The images of the blue-naked beast even made the newspapers in Saudi Arabia.
Even Canion, the rancher who picked-up the roadside treasure, is sending images of her own.
"These shirts, four of them, are going to Sicily. We have sent shirts to Guam. We have sent shirts to Iraq, California (and) Memphis," she said.
Nearly 10,000 chupacabra T-shirts have been sold.
Students wore them by the hundreds for Chupacabra Day last month at Cuero High School.
In the end, DNA results show that the mystery animal is a coyote
Mysterious animal found by Cuero rancher identified
Web Posted: 11/02/2007 11:57 AM CDT
Joe Conger
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
Sick animal or sensational new species?
Cuero has found itself in the center of a phenomenon created when residents discovered livestock drained of blood, and hairless animals roaming around.
According to Phylis Canion, her ranch had been pestered for years by the creature that stole her cats and sucked her chickens dry.
The big-game hunter plans to mount the animal's head, if she can just figure out what it is.
"And when people came in and looked at the pictures, when I first brought this one back to the ranch, that's what everybody said, 'Ohmigosh, that's the chupacabra,' " Canion said. "Well, is that what it is? We don't know what it is, but that's what we'll call it."
KENS 5 decided to put an end to the speculation and sent samples for DNA testing.
"The answer is, ultimately, what is it most closely related to? What does the DNA reveal?" said Michael Forstner, a biology professor at Texas State University.
Scientists from Texas State University began a time-consuming process of determining what is the beast that lurked in the pastures and fields around Cuero.
"I hope that the end result of this, from our side, is that assumptions or fears, however you want to think about it, change. And that we have taken something that is unknown and potentially scary and used technology and scientific approaches to evaluate what it really is," said Forstner.
The find out the result is meticulous work. On the cellular level, the sample is purified, replicated, and the result is a map of the animal's DNA structure, to be compared against other animals.
"It's not like they make it look like on 'CSI,' " Forstner said.
KENS viewers certainly had their opinions, ranging from a mangy red fox, a Chihuahua and even a hairless Peruvian Inca dog.
"It's not a wolf. It's a Chupacabra," said an unidentified student at Cuero High School.
One viewer wrote in to say it's a "stupid fraud" being carried on by the station.
"In the end, the most important thing is that we don't jump to any assumptions in science," said Forstner. "It's about revealing the mystery, and taking the mystery and making it a known."
It is not just residents in Cuero waiting to know what the animal is. So is the world.
Global attention descended upon the town of 6,000, from late-night talk show humor, radio broadcasts and blogs on the World Wide Web.
The images of the blue-naked beast even made the newspapers in Saudi Arabia.
Even Canion, the rancher who picked-up the roadside treasure, is sending images of her own.
"These shirts, four of them, are going to Sicily. We have sent shirts to Guam. We have sent shirts to Iraq, California (and) Memphis," she said.
Nearly 10,000 chupacabra T-shirts have been sold.
Students wore them by the hundreds for Chupacabra Day last month at Cuero High School.
In the end, DNA results show that the mystery animal is a coyote