Ok, I've received a TON of PM's since I mentioned the chupacabra and posted it in my album; I figured what better topic to use for a first blog than this. Here's a little history behind it:

Last December 27th, my Father shot this animal (still unidentified up to present) while hunting white tail in Florida (Ocala Area). He saw two of them jumping tree to tree... so he shot one; I have NO CLUE what his reason was for shooting some animal that he couldn't recognize was... but I won't get into that. He fired and killed the one. Upon closer investigation, he realized it was an animal that he had never seen... nor heard of before; and he's very into wildlife, outdoors, and all things science.

The animal, as you can see in the photographs, has 5 long articulate fingers on each appendage, a prehensil-ish tail (I mistakenly referred to it as vestigial in my forum post), thick meaty hind legs for jumping, canine teeth (indication that its carnivorous), no hair to speak of besides the tip of its tail, and roughly 30 pounds (the other one was about the same size, no hair, and similar "Harle"-ish coloration).

When he could not identify it by any animal searches online (and stumped my brother and I), he called Discovery Channel and Animal Planet who both sent representatives out to look at it (it is still stored in his deep freezer). Neither organization could truly identify the animal, but both reps said that they had seen one before in Puerto Rico. They stated that the animal is often mistakenly reported as a Chupacabra by people in Puerto Rico... though the actual Chupacabra is likely a myth.

To this day, I have shown this animal to hundreds of people... and I welcome any information that anyone here can provide on the identification of this animal; If any of you knows what this animal is or has seen one before, please contact me and let me know. I and my father both would like to hear any information anyone can provide on what this animal is.

Without further ado, here are the photographs.