Mysterious Beast Kills Chickens and Drinks Blood in Malawi

A security guard working at a market in Malawi heard a commotion coming from a stall containing live chickens. When he arrived, he found eighteen dead chickens. The only marks on the birds were holes in their necks where their blood had been mysteriously sucked out. Has the Chupacabra crossed the ocean to Africa or are the citizens of Malawi dealing with a different blood-sucking beast?

The incident took place February 25 at around 10 pm in the Bwandilo Market in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa bordered by Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. According to Maxwell Jamu and Chrissie Lufeyo, owners of the chickens (remaining birds pictured above), the guard found eighteen of their chickens taken from two cages and lying dead on the ground. Jamu says the way they were killed was puzzling.

All the chickens' bodies were intact except for holes either on their necks, sides, or where the legs joined the main body. And there was no single mark of blood around: it appeared like whatever killed them had only targeted at sucking blood from the chicken.

The guard said he saw something that “looked like a dog” running from the scene, but Jamu doesn’t buy it because a dog would have torn the chickens apart and eaten them - not just suck their blood out. Jamu is concerned for the health of people who stole some of the dead chickens and both the police and the Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development are looking into the incident, especially since a woman was killed in the same area just a week earlier by what appeared to be a pack of dogs.

While the Chupacabra has not been reported in Africa, other beasts have. In 2012, residents of Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa, were terrorized by what many described as a dog-pig hybrid creature with a canine head and body of a giant hog. It killed dogs, goats and other animals but was never caught. The Adjule is a doglike creature most often reported in North Africa while Kenya is home to the Ngoloko or Nandi bear, a bear-like creature that is said to prefer brains over blood or other body parts.

Are these beasts expanding their territories? Did a Chupacabra hitch a ride on a cargo ship? Malawians and their chickens would like to know.