The 'Moca vampire', Puerto Rico
Dozens of farm animals around Moca were found dead with puncture wounds and apparently drained of blood, a panic that foreshadowed the chupacabra.
1975 CE · 18.39, -67.11 · status: disputed
The account
In early 1975 goats, cows, geese and other animals were reported killed with small round wounds around the town of Moca in north-western Puerto Rico. Local press named the unknown killer 'el vampiro de Moca', and some residents linked it to lights in the sky. Twenty years later the chupacabra scare began on the same island.
The sceptical view
Veterinarians and police attributed the deaths to feral dogs, monkeys escaped from research colonies, or other ordinary predators; claims that the bodies were bloodless were not tested.
The researched reading
A panic over livestock deaths in Moca. Predators explain the deaths; the vampire was a press creation that prefigured the chupacabra.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 50% | Feral dogs, escaped monkeys and other predators kill livestock with puncture wounds; claims that the bodies were bloodless were never tested. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 15% | Once a vampire was announced, normal deaths were reinterpreted. |
| Something known, misidentified | 10% | Lights in the sky linked to the deaths were probably ordinary aircraft or planets. |
| Undetermined | 10% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Some cases may have been deliberate acts or embellished. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 5% | Nothing found requires a non-human agent. |
| Secret human technology | 3% | No known military activity fits. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 2% | No unknown natural cause is needed. |
Official position: Veterinarians and police attributed the deaths to dogs and other predators.