Texas City Needs Help Identifying 'Strange' Figure Spotted Near Zoo: 'Definitely Chupacabra'

Alexandra Schonfeld
·2 min read
5
Texas Zoo
Texas Zoo

City of Amarillo, Texas/Facebook Amarillo Zoo

A city in Texas is asking the public for help after a local zoo spotted something "strange" hanging outside its fences.

On Wednesday, the City of Amarillo, Texas, shared a news release and a Facebook post with a photo of the bizarre figure, asking the community for help identifying the sight.

"The Amarillo Zoo captured a strange image outside the zoo in the dark and early morning hours of May 21 (around 1:25 a.m.)," Amarillo's social media post read. "Is it a person with a strange hat who likes to walk at night? A chupacabra? Do you have any ideas of what this UAO- Unidentified Amarillo Object could be?"

Commenters on the post poked fun at all the possibilities.

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"Clearly a young werewolf...not a big deal," one person wrote on Facebook.

"Definitely chupacabra, yep," said another.

A chupacabra is a mythical monster rumored to suck blood from livestock. The first reported sightings of this cryptid came from Puerto Rico, according to National Geographic. In almost all cases of reported chupacabra sightings, the incidents have turned out to be run-ins with coyotes suffering from severe mange.

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"We just want to let the Amarillo community have some fun with this," Michael Kashuba, the City of Amarillo's (COA) director of parks and recreation, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. "It is important to note that this entity was outside the Amarillo Zoo. There were no signs of attempted entry into the zoo. No animals or individuals were harmed. There were no signs of criminal activity or vandalism."

The image the City of Amarillo shared of the figure is fuzzy, at best, and shows something standing outside a fence.

"It is definitely a strange and interesting image. Maybe Amarillo can help solve the mystery of our UAO," Kashuba added.