I think I might know what the chupies are!

in science class we are learning about the geologic time table and dinosaurs and stuff. my teacher was talking about sabre toothed tigers and said that scientists think that they might not have eaten the actual meat of the prey!!! they said the long canines were probably used like daggers and that the tigers probably just sucked out the blood out!!! they say it had an OVERBITE and VERY FEW TEETH IN FRONT BETWEEN THE CANINES. the chupies of today might possibly be a distant relative of sabers (i know the chupies look kind of like dogs but the evidence seems to add up and maybe they somehow branched off into dogs).

i forgot to add but i think its kind of obvious is how the chupies have long canines and suck blood



[edit on 18-11-2004 by Hawker9]

[edit on 18-11-2004 by Banshee]

Thats an interesting theory that I havent heard before. I do think the Sabers ate meat though. It would be real hard for them to be the size they were and have the massive muscular structure they maintained. It could definatly have been a combination of both meat and blood though.

Blood is the most nutritious source of food, so it might very well have gotten many of its nutrients from there, but like Kidfinger said, they most likely needed meat to support their muscular structure and to be able to hung prey. They probably used the large front teeth they are famous for as killing devices, then tore up the meat with those or their claws and swallowed. Either that or some teeth have been destroyed in the millions of years since then.

Awesome theory though! Kepp up the thinking, it is what makes this board the most wonderful place on the Internet!

they find new species of stuff every so often perhaps not all sabres are extinct?

Im a big fan of the chupacabaras be them fact or fiction......we may never know, but this theory cerrtainly hold a lot of credence.....just look at the recent find of the tiny human species isolated on an island acrhipelago......I have read that evolution plays funny tricks with animals when they are isolated such as they are on islands and can radically alter their size or shape to fit with the surrounding ecosystems......Most of the sightings of these creatures stem from the Island of Cameroon and from Chile.....which both have large pockets of isolated and unpopulated land, and forest areas....this could explain the reason why a species like the sabretooth would evolve in such a way....and lest we forget that the sabretooths existed in the last ice age with the mamoths.....if they had such massive frames and a nw ice age came about, this would explain in evolutionary terms why their size had been somewhat reduced as there wouldnt have been the same amount of food to sustain their huge size and structure.....call it wild speculation, but in a world where we have animals that defy logic such as the duck billed platypus.....anything is possible and probable.
great theory, keep em coming my friend

[edit on 19-11-2004 by radiant_obsidian]

Originally posted by Hawker9
my teacher was talking about sabre toothed tigers and said that scientists think that they might not have eaten the actual meat of the prey!!! they said the long canines were probably used like daggers and that the tigers probably just sucked out the blood out!!!

I may be just a common computer freak, but that makes very little sense...

We are talking about a HUGE animal here with HUGE teeth, that would basicly sever your neck artery and kill you in one bite. Result? A bloody mess, literally. Ever tried cutting the head of someone to drink the blood? You'd have to lap it up from floor. Not very effective... In nature you'd probably eat more dirt than blood.

Not to mention the fact its still survival of the fittest: If you are such a sized predator, you eat EVERYTHING. Discarding all that flesh would be a complete waste, and I would understand why they went extinct.

So no, I dont believe in that theory.

Sabertooth tigers are believed to have been carnivores. Not sure where your teacher heard about them being vampiric. Those enlarged sabres are believed to have been used to bite the neck and kill in a single strike, also believed to have been used in behavior, i.e. fighting for territory and a symbol of health/power.

Blood is the most nutritious source of food

Nope, sorry. Muscle is high in protein. Fat is high in calories. Blood does have glucose, minerals, some protein and lipids, but to call it the most nutritional would be very far off. There would be no reason for a large cat to make a kill, suck the blood, and then leave the best parts behind. Waste not want not.

Originally posted by contraa
Nope, sorry. Muscle is high in protein. Fat is high in calories. Blood does have glucose, minerals, some protein and lipids, but to call it the most nutritional would be very far off. There would be no reason for a large cat to make a kill, suck the blood, and then leave the best parts behind. Waste not want not.

then why do chupies suck blood? i mean yeah theyre smaller than sabers but theyre still big enough to eat meat. and come on, you dont really think a sabertooth could actually chew its food without those gigantic canines getting in the way, do you? and the meat, like you said, has protein. not much else.

forgot to add: sabertooth tigers werent THAT big. probably a bit larger than mountain lions maybe, but not as big as you say, merka.


[edit on 19-11-2004 by Hawker9]

[edit on 19-11-2004 by Hawker9]

chupies aren't really all that big, and from reports are really boney. So from just sucking blood, it would explain why they arn't big and muscular. Also, in addotion tro blood drank, most reports include various parts of the animal gone as well.

[edit on 19-11-2004 by satchbfoot]

"then why do chupies suck blood? i mean yeah theyre smaller than sabers but theyre still big enough to eat meat. and come on, you dont really think a sabertooth could actually chew its food without those gigantic canines getting in the way, do you? and the meat, like you said, has protein. not much else."

Sabertooth tigers didnt chew their food,they rip strip and swallow.
Meat has much more than just protein,meat is the most nutritious food around,dont believe me?go on a twinkie and water only diet.

check out this page on sabertooth tigers.
Smilodon was the largest species at about 4-5 long,3 feet high,and weighing in at a whopping 440 LBS.much heavier than modern day lions.
These things were not anemic blood suckers,they were meat eating machines.

[edit on 19-11-2004 by Samhain for link]

www.zoomwhales.com...

[edit on 19-11-2004 by Samhain]

Originally posted by Hawker9
forgot to add: sabertooth tigers werent THAT big. probably a bit larger than mountain lions maybe, but not as big as you say, merka.

I never said how big they where, but we are talking much larger than any reported chupacabra.

Either way, a bloodsucker that actually KILL its prey is very inneffiecent, if not pointless. If you can kill something, you can eat it. All bloodsuckers (mosquito, vampire bats, etc) arent designed to rip the head of whatever its eating, they just want the blood. Well I'm not an animal expert, but I dont think so.

he's right. they mainly attempt to take enough to live but not severly injure the animal they're feeding off of.

its like bacteria. The ones that kill the person before it can reproduce and multiply are unsuccessful.
the ones we can carry without dying quickly are hte most successful; they live happily in us, and we may sometimes get a benefite from them.

actually, theyre called saber toothed cats. And if you do more research, as they evolved, their teeth got smaller, because the oversized teeth didnt work as well for eating.


Plus I dont see the point in drinking an animals blood. What is there that can sustain an animal? Blood is just a liquid that carrys oxygen to all parts of your body.

Id say good idea, but not probable.

Furthermore, nobody's ever come up with a chupacabra or a skeleton of one or any real proof (lotta hoaxes) that they exist. On the other hand, we have a lot of good evidence (skeltons, etc) of saber toothed tigers and sabertoothed cats.

I agree with those who have said that the "blood sucking" theory isn't right. I don't know where your teacher got that, but I just ran a search of scientific (paleontology) journals and there's nothing remotely like that in the scientific literature.

Blood sucking, is there any evidence to this? Maybe the walrus and elephants do the same thing. Chupacabra? Folk-lore; does anyone have links to a picture or video of any chupacabra evidence?

Originally posted by FrostyBlood sucking, is there any evidence to this? Maybe the walrus and elephants do the same thing. Chupacabra? Folk-lore; does anyone have links to a picture or video of any chupacabra evidence?

I hope you didn't mean that walruses and elephants are blood suckers! Elephants eat plants and walruses eat clams. There's no way they suck blood like vampires.

Chupacabras are just urban legends!

Kompaktor, your response on blood being very nutritious makes no sense. It has no essential vitamins, nutrients, all it has is protein. Lots and lots of protein. The sabre toothed tiger had one purpose and one purpose only, to strike the neck of large animals with its equally large teeth. If this chupacabra actually was a sabre toothed tiger, then it would not be leaving little bite wounds it in. The fangs were as long as a 13 year old boys arm scientists say. They cannot and willnot be able to achive maximum nutrient needs for a goat, and they will never be able to do more thna rip a very massive hole in these creatures. When will you people realize it doesnt always have a logical explanation, maybe it actually is a blood sucking goat, or a prankster, and even a "monster" of some sort. Bottom line is, 8th grade pre teen science teachers are not going to be able to solve a problem that has been baffeling scientists and mexicans for years, let alone a 8th grade kid. This time, try to pay attention to my signature.

Originally posted by Indellkoffer

Originally posted by FrostyBlood sucking, is there any evidence to this? Maybe the walrus and elephants do the same thing. Chupacabra? Folk-lore; does anyone have links to a picture or video of any chupacabra evidence?

I hope you didn't mean that walruses and elephants are blood suckers! Elephants eat plants and walruses eat clams. There's no way they suck blood like vampires.

Chupacabras are just urban legends!

Yes, I know, I was refering to the fact that walruses and elephants both have large protruding objects similar looking to that of the saber tooth and was poking fun at the teacher of whoever mentioned that saber tooths were blood suckers.

It is very suspicious to me that a Chupacabra has never been captured if they are real. In the parts of Southern California where I have lived, mountain lion attacks are not unheard of. The proper authorities are pretty good about finding and killing them when need be.
As I mentioned, I'm in Southern California, which means that Mexicans and the attendant Chupacabra stories are part of the landscape. Somehow, when a strange predator rips somebody's dog open or scares the crap out of some home owner, we always end up with a dead mountain lion- never a dead chupacabra.

The chupacabra myth belongs to an outstanding class of myths which are commonly believed because they sieze upon things that REALLY HAPPEN. Small strange looking predators really do kill stuff- just not Chupas. Whenever a wild dog, a coyote, a mountain lion, or my red-neck uncle kills something and leaves part of the corpse in a gruesome array, the Mexicans say it's a Chupacabra.

As for the saber tooth, has anybody else ever heard of a nandi bear? I've read that in parts of Kenya there is a common superstition about this burly long haired quadraped with an outstanding set of fangs which the locals call a nandi bear, and the description is very similiar to a sabertooth.
Speaking of which- where in the prehistoric world did Sabertooth cats live? any chance they'd be in Africa if more modern species still survived?