The chupacabra that's been recently popular in the southwest are not like the original el chupacabras. I am really puzzled how the rash of mange-ridden coyotes became conflated with the original creature of South American folklore.

The original chupie was (usually) described as looking somewhat like this:


While the more popular one due to the Texas sightings looks like:


As far as I know, the Texan chups are proven to be some kind of canid. While the more alien looking one that appeared on the stage in the 1990's has never left behind testable evidence, to my knowledge.