Could Oklahoma’s Chupacabra Actually be an Escaped Australian Wolf?

Depending on where you come from, the legend of the Chupacabra is slightly different. In some areas of the country it feeds on goats... in Oklahoma, it drinks the blood of cattle... in my childhood home it ate children who were misbehaving... the point is, everyone has a chupacabra story in our part of the country.

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What if it's less of a legend and closer to being real than anyone ever realized?

There was an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience back in 2019 that featured a guest named Forrest Galante. He's the noted adventurist/conservationist television personality who made a huge claim about the Chupacabra.

In the clip that circles around social media once in a while, he talks about how the Chupacabra is actually the long-extinct thylacine - AKA the Tasmanian tiger - and states that it still roams around the wilds of the Americas.

As his story goes, the pet trade was global in the early 20th century (1900s). The Bronx Zoo in NYC had arranged to purchase a breeding pair of these Aussie wolves, but when the ship they were carried on wrecked, the pair escaped into the wilds of New England.

He continues on about how New England is similar to Tasmania ecologically, and how Chupacabra sightings started soon after their escape. Adding that sightings have expanded north and south across the country as the original breeding pair, and the subsequent offspring, spread far and wide across America.

As you'd expect, the episode and clips received tons of likes and shares in recognition of normies because people love the idea thylacines could still be alive... but there's an issue with the story.

I have searched the entire internet for the story of thylacines escaping captivity during a shipwreck, but even the mighty Google can't find a single thread to pull on. The only reference to it is in the JRE clip.

In fact, thylacine was so incredibly rare even back then that every single one that was exported was highly documented. Shipping, arrival, health, captivity, and death records for every single one of them... Not a single mention of a breeding pair escaping a shipwreck, not just in America, but anywhere around the globe.

Is the thylacine extinct? Eh, maybe... at least, more than likely. There are occasional tracks and other trivial evidence discovered that infers their continued existence Down Under, but the last known thylacine died in captivity in 1936.

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Could they be wild in America? Umm... I'm not the type to believe that there's actually a bigfoot/sasquatch/skunk ape/yeti running around in the wild, but I also don't think the lack of concrete evidence is enough to empirically say it was always a hoax... That being said, I personally don't think Tasmanian wolves are running around the country.

If fact, I'm convinced the legendary Chupacabra is actually just coyotes that are in really poor health and suffering from conditions like mange.