Sightings of similar creatures have popped up in recent years at Edinburg along the border with Mexico and farther north near Cuero.
Collins, a member of the Texas State Guard, attended a drill a few days later and showed pictures of the animal to fellow troops from South Texas.
"They'd take one look and say, 'Yep, you got a chupacabra there,'" Collins said.
Actually, said Sgt. Rosemary Moninger of Hood County animal control, the animal was a "coyote-canine hybrid," according to tests conducted at Texas A&M University.
Moninger took the carcass to veterinary experts there, who found skin mites still active on the animal a day after it was killed and put in a cooler, she said.
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