Chupacabra

The Chupacabra ("goat-sucker") burst onto the scene in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s, blamed for a string of livestock deaths marked by strange puncture wounds and, per legend, a complete draining of blood. Descriptions vary wildly — sometimes a spiny reptilian biped, sometimes a mangy dog-like creature — which hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the most recognizable cryptids in the Americas within a single generation. It has since been spotted from Puerto Rico to Texas to Chile, proving that a good monster travels well. Most mainstream explanations point to sick or mangy coyotes; we prefer the version with more spines.