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RandyMacSC/SO
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Baja Sierras: Chupacabra and Cattle mutilations?
Okay. What gives with all the dead cattle in the Sierra Del Lagunas that look like the complete insides of the cattle have been sucked out of the
carcass, including major bones?
I've been sorting through thousands of my digital photos from my 2002-2003 Baja trip and I came across this one photo that I took at the top of the
Sierra Del Lagunas on the plateau of a dry lake bed. The photo reminded me of all the strange occurrances of dead cattle that I found while on my 6
day hike up, across the dry lake bed, and then down the Los Zorros Canyon to Santiago.
While hiking in the Sierra Del Lagunas in early February 2003, I saw many live cattle, but what was really weird was that I found 6 dead cattle that
looked like the complete insides had been sucked out of them. There appeared to be no obvious reason for these cattle deaths; and it didn't appear to
be coyotes, mountain lions, or animals of prey that killed them, nor falls from cliffs etc. The cattle didn't appear to have died from old age, and
nor had the insides been ripped out through any major holes in the skin as if eaten by an animal of prey. I could find no apparent major flesh wounds,
but I did find puncture wounds in various places on most of the dead cattle. Hagi, my Japanese friend that came with me was freaked out by all these
dead cattle. He didn't sleep for 2 nights. He told me stories about some rat like beast that kills cattle in Japan and would always sleep next to the
firepit with a big sharp stick each night.
I remember taking this photo (below) and after looking at it, I made a quick search on Yahoo tonight to find out about animal mutilations in Baja. I
found some information on something called a Chupacabra or goatsucker. Never heard of it before.
Anyone else hear of anything like this happening in other parts of the Baja before or in the Todos Santos area?
RandyMac
[Edited on 3-4-2004 by RandyMac]
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Dead cow with insides sucked out
This is the photo of one of the 6 cattle that appeared to have their complete insides sucked out. Too strange!!!!
RandyMac
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RandyMacSC/SO
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This angry little cow charged me in Los Zorros Canyon. I've had many interesting experiences while hiking, but I had never been charged by a small cow
before, until my 6 day Sierra Del Laguna trip last year. It was a bit of a Baja standoff until we let each other pass by in a small rocky narrowing in
Los Zorros canyon.
I wonder how long this one lasted without having it's insides sucked out?
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TMW
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When you say sucked out, was there a hole or somekind of opening that the insides came out? I have heard stories about Mexican monsters from time to
time like the goatsucker you mention. I also seem to recall an incident in the Todos Santo area of this in the late 80's or early 90s, but I just
passed it on as folklore or some kind of trick someone was playing.
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David K
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Chupacabras (goat suckers) are a Mexican myth (?)... Tim Walker saw one (?) run across Laguna Salada. Go to timsbaja.com, it's in one of his original
trip reports (Guadalupe Canyon). If you do a search you will see a lot on chupacabras, including photos! I will dig some up after my appoinments
today...
[Edited on 2-6-2013 by David K]
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Mexican monsters? Goat suckers?
| Quote: | Originally posted by TW
When you say sucked out, was there a hole or somekind of opening that the insides came out? I have heard stories about Mexican monsters from time to
time like the goatsucker you mention. I also seem to recall an incident in the Todos Santo area of this in the late 80's or early 90s, but I just
passed it on as folklore or some kind of trick someone was playing. |
First off: I'm no UFO conspiracy buff or believer in monsters. The only monsters I believe exist in this world are evil people. I like to hike, and
expect to come across dead animals from time to time that die of natural causes. That's nature. But what was puzzling, was so many dead cattle, on or
close to the path that we were taking while hiking. If you use simple math, and deductive reasoning to calculate how many possibilities of other dead
cattle there could be within the Sierra Del Laguna range, it might be closer to 50 or more. That's alot of dead cattle. Too many if I was the ranchero
who owned them.
There appeared to be no apparant gash or flesh wound openings large enough to get the insides out. There were puncture wounds in the neck area, kind
of like that of a small butcher knife would make if plunged into the neck, but there is no way the complete insides could be vacuumed out those small
holes. It took covering my face with a bandana, and the smell was about as desireable as spending the night in an overfuilling outhouse, but I did
manage to take a nearby log and flip two of the dead cattle carcasses over to see if the major wounds were on the bottom side.
Nothing but beef pelt and cattle fur.
Could it be poisonous RATTLE SNAKE BITES or other poisonous naturally occurring creatures that are killing them? Then the ants, worms, magots and
bugs eating them from the inside out? It's over 4,000 feet up, and on the plateau of Sierra Del Laguna it is closer to 6,000. Too cold for
rattlesnakes and other poisonous reptilia, and how do you explain the puncture wounds on the necks? That's a big leap for a snake, or one big ant with
sharp teeth. Most of the 6 dead cattle were near or on the Sierra Del Laguna plateau.
Have you ever seen the top of Sierra Del Laguna area? It's like a big egg shaped plateau (huge wild grass field) with small mountain bluffs on all
sides and 2 narrow canyons dropping to the northeast corner and southeast corners. Los Zorros is the canyon we hiked down to Santiago and I forget the
other Canyon name. I'll dig out a photo or two and post them later.
RandyMac
[Edited on 3-5-2004 by RandyMac]
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Virgin of Guadalupe shrine on Sierra Del Laguna Plateau?
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Chupacabras (goat suckers) are a Mexican myth (?)... Tim Walker saw one (?) run across Laguna Salada. Go to timsbaja.com, it's in one of his original
trip reports (Guadalupe Canyon). If you do a search you will see a lot on chupacabras, including photos! I will dig some up after my appoinments
today...
[Edited on 3-4-2004 by David K] |
David. I'll check it out at Tim's site. Perhaps he knows why there is a religious catholic shrine at the top of the plateau?
Another strange thing was finding a Virgin of Guadalupe shrine up on top of the Sierra Del Laguna plateau (photo below). Okay, perhaps it is used by
the rancheros who look after their cattle all over the mountainous range in the Sierra Del Lagunas, but it does seem to be an odd place to have a
religious shrine. Maybe there is alot more to this story than is being made public? After coming down from the hike last year, I heard of pilgrimages
by mexican people from the Todos area and La Paz all the way up to the Sierra Del Laguna plateau to visit this shrine during the Easter week. That's
one long hike up to pray, but there has to be a reason why it is up on the plateau. Did a local(s) witness an apparition of the Virgin up there?
We even found a Telmex pay phone powered by a solar panel hung on a small cabin wall up on the Sierra Del Laguna plateau. And there were tire tracks
(a dirt road) on the field but no way to get a truck or vehicle up to the plateau, other than airlifted in. We did not see or find any vehicles, just
an empty well maintained log and wood structure cabin.
RandyMac
Virgin of Guadalupe shrine in northwest corner of the Sierra Del Laguna plateau, found nestled in the rocks and trees just off the main trail up to
the plateau from Todos Santos.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Telemex pay phone on cabin wall...
When we arrived on top of the plateau last February 6, 2003 after a full day hike, it was getting dark. A friend and I slept in our bags under a large
pine tree. In the morning we checked things out and found the cabin. I noticed the card type phone on the wall powered by a small solar panel on the
roof. Makes sense to have one for use by rancheros or biology station workers.
I'm wondering if the rancheros and biology workers get flown into the plateau, which could account for the tire marks in the field. This is too weird
to think of, but perhaps somebody is experimenting with the cattle up there?
Virgin of Guadalupe shrine, dead cattle that looked like their insides had been sucked out!!!!
Starting to sound like an X-Files exisode in southern Baja.
[Edited on 3-5-2004 by RandyMac]
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Los Zorros Canyon: spectacular hike
That morning, I found another dead cow in the northeast corner while searching for firewood and a further cow carcus in the northwest corner. After
spending a full day on the south side of the plateau, we headed west across the field and picked up the trail that went along the southwest ridge of
the plateau. This is where I found two more cattle corpses. It was like they were placed offerings, two in each corner of the plateau.
On the west plateau ridge I could see out past the trees to see a stretch of beach at Los Cerritos. The west to coast dirt road is at kilometer 67
heading into the camp that I stayed at for 5 months.
If you ever want to go on a great hike and aren't afraid of mexican monsters (Baja Chupacabra) then this is a fantastic trip.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Beautiful pool in Los Zorros canyon...
There were many beautiful natural water pools all the way down Los Zorros Canyon from the top of the Sierra Del Laguna plateau.
We stopped to dive into the pool from the rock bluff on the left. It was approximately a 35 feet jump off the wall into the pool below. It took 4 days
to hike 5 kilometers down this canyon or shall I say huge boulder field canyon.
A photo of one of the many canyon pools.
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dbrooks
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I'm convinced...
the Chupacabra lives! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Please...it's a bunch of dead cattle...in Mexico...what else is new?
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RandyMacSC/SO
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| Quote: | Originally posted by dbrooks
the Chupacabra lives! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Please...it's a bunch of dead cattle...in Mexico...what else is new? |
Please...?
Dead cows in Baja. You don't say. Yes of course. Happens all the time; dead cattle are a part of everyday life down in the Baja. Most everyone that
has driven down the 1000 mile stretch of Baja or lives in the Baja and travels the roadways has witnessed dozens upon dozens of dead cattle, probably
hundreds, not to mention dead cats and dead-dead road pizza dogs. Generally beside the road after being moowed down by a large semi trucks barrelling
down the highway at 80 miles an hour.
In fact, I ran over a squashed cow 10 miles north or Catavina early one evening while heading to my destination of Catavina. Of course, it was
already crunched by a semi-truck, but the blood and guts were a b-tch to hose off my rig, especially after it all baked onto my rig. The semi driver
highbeamed me moments after he mushed it down and dragged it for a 1/4 mile, and within a short 10 seconds, I had slowed down well below the speed
limit, and then rumble rumble, crunch, munch as my 21 foot motorhome with 4x4 in tow bounced over the leg side of the poor beast.
Now if the highway or heavily traveled roads ran through the Sierra Del Laguna plateau, I would think nothing of dead cattle being spread all over up
there. THERE'S NO SEMI TRUCKS, or cars, or trucks up there to run mow them down.
After reading Tim Walker's story on his web site,
http://www.timsbaja.com/strange.html it is very interesting, as from what I have heard of Tim, he is a well known respected Baja traveller. After
reading the story, I am convinced that he might have seen a larger than normal Baja dwelling Coatimundi. And as far as many of these so called reports
of some fierce creature (Chupacabra), it sounds nothing more than a northwestern living Coatimundi to me.
I hike and trek into the wilderness of Mexico and in Canada alot and have witnessed many strange sites. I don't hike in the US. Too many people with
guns, just waiting to shoot something that moves. Not that there aren't some idiot hunters in Canada.
I spent time living in the Yucatan Mexico and came across some (fear for your life situations) while on treks into the jungle. Stalking jaguar being
the most fearful. I'm well aware of all the creature myths and dead cattle are nothing new.
As far as hiking in the Baja, I hike alone on many occassions. Not much to worry about, and I do understand the risks of hiking alone. Other than
being jumped from behind by a mountain lion, which I have never had to worry about, the only concern I have is breaking a leg or snake bites.
While hiking in the Yucatan jungles, there is nothing more concerning than being stalked by a jaguar, or running into a overly large pack of hungry
Coatimundi looking for anything to eat. I had a pet Coatimundi (2 Beer Fred) living in the attic of my palapa in the Yucatan. Photo below.
From all the reports that I have read today on the Web concerning this mythical Chupacabra, most seem to be far fetched hysteria, but then again, I
wasn't there. TO ME for what that is worth: it appears as though some people may be seeing what is known as a Coatimundi. They generally live in the
jungles of southeastern Mexico and Central America, but they have been reported as far north as Arizona and generally live in small groups of about
four to 20 animals with the exception of mature males that live solitary.
The Coatimundi is generally an adorable little mammal, 2 feet long, darkly colored, with brownish-red fur and weigh between 8 and 12 pounds and have
know to grow to over 25 pounds. They have long snouts, powerful feet with large claws for leaping, climbing, and digging.
Their natural range extends from South America to as far North as Arizona and inhabit mountain canyons.
I've seen some strange animals in the Baja, and liken the experience to that of a Baja dwelling Coatimundi.
Has anyone seen an animal or mammal in any part of the Baja that looks something like this Coatimundi pictured below? This little guy took up
residence in my palapa in the Yucatan. 2 Beer Fred was quite tame, but got a little ugly if anyone went into my beer fridge without me being home. I
used to tell people. No half full bottles. Fred shouldn't drink beer. Thus naming him 2 Beer Fred. He got real ugly on beer.
Coatimundi sigtings in Baja. Perhaps!!!
RandyMac
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RandyMacSC/SO
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2 Beer Fred
I like half full SOL beer. No Corona please.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Such a okay I'm sorry grin...
I took the above photo of 2 Beer Fred after giving him sh*t for drinking my beer again! Couldn't leave a full beer on the table to go to the can. He'd
jump down, grab it and start chugging. One day I thought I saw him guzzling my beer and flipping through the channels with my TV remote.
They do look tame and cuddly, but I have seen the results of what a pack of them can do to a larger animal.
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BajaVida
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I have seen chupacabras in Baja twice.
I saw one in Catavina just north of La Virgen over the hill from the small concrete block shrine just south of the highway.
The other time was on the road to San Borja.
They scared the living daylights out of me.
No se apure y dure.
Don\'t hurry and you\'ll last longer.
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David K
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Seen one of these?
This is a Baja creature... a babasuri on Isla San Jose... Beautiful, huh? Photo from Alejandra de Baja, 2000.
[Edited on 3-5-2004 by David K]
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RandyMacSC/SO
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You found 2 Beer Fred's cousin in the Baja...
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
This is a Baja creature... a babasuri on Isla San Jose... Beautiful, huh? Photo from Alejandra de Baja, 2000.
[Edited on 3-5-2004 by David K] |
Looking at the great photo of babasuri, it definitely looks like a close cousin of 2 Beer Fred. What a beautiful long tail.
Coatimundi (pronounced keh-wat-i-mun-deh) They are definitely an affectionate, amazingly smart little mammal that can make an excellent pet. I think
Fred came with my palapa.
If there is ONE, there are more in the Baja. They are good at exterminating ferral cats.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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more of 2 Beer Fred
Fred made more holes in my palapa roof than I care to remember, but he was definitely a ham for guests.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Fred's bed (hammock) with an unwanted guest in it...
Fred was easy going, but I could do without the howling monkeys swinging in 2 Beer Fred's hammock.
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RandyMacSC/SO
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Fred's favorite snack. Pink bouganvillas...
I think this is why 2 Beer Fred adopted my palapa. He loved to eat the pink flowers and drink my SOL beer.
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