Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction and Folklore is a non-fiction book by Benjamin Radford, an American writer and investigator. The book documents Radford's five-year investigation into accounts of the chupacabra. The chupacabra is said to be a vampiric predatory animal that drains the blood of animal victims while avoiding human detection.
Overview
The author, Benjamin Radford, attempts to solve the mystery of the chupacabra, including whether it is a legend or real animal, what its physical and behavior characteristics are, its origin and connection to folklore, and what exactly is happening to the animals reported to be its victims.
Tracking the Chupacabra documents Radford's five-year investigation, including his travels into the mysteries surrounding the chupacabra. It also includes his research, with interviews and documentation collected during this process.
Opening with "The Goatsucker Mystery," Radford introduced the essential portions of the chupacabra legend and its different versions, comparing the creatures' characteristics with another, Bigfoot, which he writes is known for leaving large footprints. In his overview Radford summarized theories concerning the origin of the chupacabra, some paranormal or religious in nature, and interviewed several cryptozoologists.
In "A Brief history of Vampires," Radford wrote about common themes of vampire folklore. While exploring 18th-century accounts of European vampires, Radford notes that reports of vampire predation are used to explain otherwise unexplained misfortunes, such as disease, malnutrition, or loss of livestock.
"Chupacabras in Popular Culture" described how, in Radford's view, the legend grew in Puerto Rico from observations by locals of apparent animal predations into rumors of a mysterious creature that was responsible. According to Radford, the news media leapt to conclusions, which, in his opinion, further drove alleged sightings and reports, to the extent that "any odd event" was attributed to the chupacabra.
The chapter "Searching for Chupacabras in Nicaragua" deals with Radford's investigation in Nicaragua near the Río San Juan, where one of the best known alleged chupacabra remains had been discovered. While performing a physical search for the animal, Radford interviewed local experts, such as guide Fernando Casanova of Nicaragua's Indio Maiz Biological Reserve, about the local understanding of the chupacabra's "character or description," as well as examining tracks found in the area and comparing them to casts reportedly taken from scenes surrounding chupacabra victims.
In "The Dead Vampires Speak: Chupacabra Carcasses," Radford discussed the analyses of various recovered corpses put forward as candidates for identification of the chupacabra animal. "The Curious Case of the Cuero Chupacabra" covers the analysis of a carcass of the American canid version of the chupacabra, discovered by a rancher in Cuero, Texas. The chapter also discusses Radford's participation in an episode of MonsterQuest, which aired in 2008 during the series' second season. Having analyzed the various forms of chupacabra remains and reports, in "Reconsidering the Goatsucker," Radford attempted to determine the origins of the chupacabra creature.
Radford concluded his investigation with the chapter "The Zoology of Chupacabras and the Science of Vampires." Compiling reports of researchers who examined victims of animal predation in apparent chupacabra attacks, Radford noted that the reports' claims that the animals had been exsanguinated were inaccurate. The apparent loss of blood could be explained by internal hemorrhaging and pooling of blood at the bottom of the corpse. The attribution of the attacks on livestock to a vampiric entity can be explained by the puncture wounds resulting from the canine teeth left by most predators, who often instinctively go for the neck, according to taxidermist Jerry Ayer. Radford attributes much of the spread of chupacabra sightings to factors including the mass media (especially the Internet and television shows), eyewitness misperceptions, ignorance of forensic science, social contagion, and mass hysteria, and concludes that "every supposedly mysterious detail of the bloodsucking 'monster-thing' and its victims was explained."