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The Island of Paradise - Chupacabra, UFO Crash Retrievals, and Accelerated Evolution on the Island of Puerto Rico
In his first book of original research for four years, Jon Downes visits the Antillean island of Puerto Rico, to which he has led two expeditions - in 1998 and 2004. Together with noted researcher Nick Redfern he goes in search of the grotesque vampiric chupacabra, believing that it can - finally - be categorised within a zoological frame of reference rather than a purely paranormal one. Along the way he uncovers mystery after mystery, has a run in with terrorists, art historians, and even has his garden buzzed by a UFO. By turns both terrifying and funny, this remarkable book is a real tour de force by one of the world's foremost cryptozoological researchers.
284 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2008
About the author
Jonathan Downes
80 books2 followersJonathan Downes (born 1959) is a naturalist, cryptozoologist, author, editor, film-maker, poet, novelist, activist, journalist, composer and singer-songwriter, with a background in radical politics and mental health care. He is Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonatha...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonatha...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2026
Book by cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes about his 2nd expedition to Puerto Rico to investigate the stories of the Chupacabra, the livestock-mutilating alien vampire of its local folklore. The 1st expedition was chronicled in his previous book "Only Fools and Goatsuckers" which I have not yet read because it's out of print. In this we learn the reason for Downes deciding to do a 2nd expedition, the first one was funded by a documentary TV channel who had tight editorial control over what and where Downes could film and what not, including several segments about aspects of Puerto Rican culture that came across as weird and disturbing to UK audiences. (something Downes found rather tasteless) This expedition, however, was funded by a porn magazine named "Bizarre" that wanted to branch out into serious reporting like "Playboy" did back in the 1960's and accordingly gave Downes complete editorial control.
"The Island of Paradise" reads very similar to Downes' book "The Owlman and Others" about the Owlman (the UK's equivalent to Mothman) and other weird creatures in Cornish folklore, in that it's as much a travelogue of the relevant country and an introduction to its culture and history, as a cryptozoology book. As a result I learned quite a bit about Puerto Rico, for example that before conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain while searching for the Fountain of Youth, he was the governor of Puerto Rico during which he was significantly more diplomatic towards the indigenous population than typical for Spanish conquistadors of his generation. Likewise the reason he searched for the Fountain of Youth in the first place was the convoluted mythology that was popular in mediaeval and Renaissance-era Europe, about a utopian Christian kingdom in Asia ruled by a wise king named Prester John who among other wondrous things had such a Fountain in his possession. Consequently the Roman Catholic Church expended a lot of time and resources on attempting to establish contact with Prester John's kingdom back then, and bankrolled Juan Ponce de Leon's expedition for that reason. (we know for a fact that Christian missionaries did reach India early in antiquity, so the idea is not as far-fetched as it might have seemed)
We also learn about the conflicted relationship Puerto Rico has had to Spain through its history. While Puerto Rico was a Spanish domain, there were constant armed uprisings during the 19th century as a result of Spain doing as many horrible things there as any other European colonial empire at the time, but after the United States seized control over the island many Puerto Ricans have started becoming weirdly nostalgic about the Spanish reigh. (which is in sharp contrast to the people from other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America I have met: Most people in say Argentina, Peru or Mexico are quick to point out the cultural differences between their respective countries and Spain, which they view as a hated colonial oppressor they had to fight long and bloody wars of liberation against)
This brings us to many of the interesting aspects about Chupacabra folklore that Downes digs up here: He brings an extended interview with a Puerto Rican independence activist, who strongly suspects that the Chupacabra stories were in large part promulgated if not fabricated by the United States' intelligence services in order to distract from all sorts of unsavoury activities conducted the US Army on the island, or perhaps discredit eyewitness testimony about them by associating them with far-fetched conspiracy theories about secret experiments with alien DNA. (this is exactly what the USAF did to ufologist Paul Bennewitz as documented in Greg Bishop's "Project Beta" - Bishop is also interviewed by Downes and co-author Nick Redfern in "The Island of Paradise")
Likewise when reading "The Island of Paradise" I also learned about local ghost and UFO stories from Puerto Rico that I had never heard of before, as well as unusually large scavenging birds similar to rooks or vultures but far larger that frequently appear in Puerto Rican folklore, and seem too uncanny to simply be an undiscovered species of flesh-and-blood animal. Downes even tracks down a witness to an anthropomorphic bird-demon entity whose description almost perfectly matches that of the above mentioned Cornish Owlman!
As far as the Chupacabra itself goes, Downes finds no evidence of its existence and ends up concluding that the stories are most likely based on misidentifications of known animals such as mongooses and porcupines, with the livestock mutilations and damages to crops that local farmers blamed on Chupacabras more likely being the work of those 2. Downes also mentions alleged Chupacabra carcasses found in Mexico and the United States, that turned out to be dogs and coyotes who either had lost most of their body hair from skin diseases or were born with similar mutations causing them to lack hair in the first place as known from the Mexican dog breed known as the Xolo. Downes does however discover new species of fish and snails on Puerto Rico, so there was that.
This is a highly enjoyable read if you expect it to be as much of a travelogue and book about Puerto Rican folklore and history in general, as one strictly about the search for the Chupacabra. Taken as such there is one thing that feels like an "elephant in the room" when reading the book today, namely how much the description of the Puerto Rican chupacabra matches the final form taken by the extraterrestrial-human hybrid character Sil in the 1995 science-fiction film "Species". Which the first Chupacabra witness, Madelyne Tolentino, had seen in the cinema shortly before her sighting. The conspiracy theories about the Chupacabra being the result of genetic experiments in secret laboratories ran by the US Army, are also taken straight out of the plot to "Species". Amazingly enough this wasn't commonly noticed in cryptozoology circles until Benjamin Radford's book "Tracking the Chupacabra" (which extensively uses "The Island of Paradise" as a source) came out in 2010.
I would also recommend this to fans of travelogue books in general, who aren't averse to sidebars about demons, ghosts, UFOs, chupacabras and the like.
"The Island of Paradise" reads very similar to Downes' book "The Owlman and Others" about the Owlman (the UK's equivalent to Mothman) and other weird creatures in Cornish folklore, in that it's as much a travelogue of the relevant country and an introduction to its culture and history, as a cryptozoology book. As a result I learned quite a bit about Puerto Rico, for example that before conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain while searching for the Fountain of Youth, he was the governor of Puerto Rico during which he was significantly more diplomatic towards the indigenous population than typical for Spanish conquistadors of his generation. Likewise the reason he searched for the Fountain of Youth in the first place was the convoluted mythology that was popular in mediaeval and Renaissance-era Europe, about a utopian Christian kingdom in Asia ruled by a wise king named Prester John who among other wondrous things had such a Fountain in his possession. Consequently the Roman Catholic Church expended a lot of time and resources on attempting to establish contact with Prester John's kingdom back then, and bankrolled Juan Ponce de Leon's expedition for that reason. (we know for a fact that Christian missionaries did reach India early in antiquity, so the idea is not as far-fetched as it might have seemed)
We also learn about the conflicted relationship Puerto Rico has had to Spain through its history. While Puerto Rico was a Spanish domain, there were constant armed uprisings during the 19th century as a result of Spain doing as many horrible things there as any other European colonial empire at the time, but after the United States seized control over the island many Puerto Ricans have started becoming weirdly nostalgic about the Spanish reigh. (which is in sharp contrast to the people from other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America I have met: Most people in say Argentina, Peru or Mexico are quick to point out the cultural differences between their respective countries and Spain, which they view as a hated colonial oppressor they had to fight long and bloody wars of liberation against)
This brings us to many of the interesting aspects about Chupacabra folklore that Downes digs up here: He brings an extended interview with a Puerto Rican independence activist, who strongly suspects that the Chupacabra stories were in large part promulgated if not fabricated by the United States' intelligence services in order to distract from all sorts of unsavoury activities conducted the US Army on the island, or perhaps discredit eyewitness testimony about them by associating them with far-fetched conspiracy theories about secret experiments with alien DNA. (this is exactly what the USAF did to ufologist Paul Bennewitz as documented in Greg Bishop's "Project Beta" - Bishop is also interviewed by Downes and co-author Nick Redfern in "The Island of Paradise")
Likewise when reading "The Island of Paradise" I also learned about local ghost and UFO stories from Puerto Rico that I had never heard of before, as well as unusually large scavenging birds similar to rooks or vultures but far larger that frequently appear in Puerto Rican folklore, and seem too uncanny to simply be an undiscovered species of flesh-and-blood animal. Downes even tracks down a witness to an anthropomorphic bird-demon entity whose description almost perfectly matches that of the above mentioned Cornish Owlman!
As far as the Chupacabra itself goes, Downes finds no evidence of its existence and ends up concluding that the stories are most likely based on misidentifications of known animals such as mongooses and porcupines, with the livestock mutilations and damages to crops that local farmers blamed on Chupacabras more likely being the work of those 2. Downes also mentions alleged Chupacabra carcasses found in Mexico and the United States, that turned out to be dogs and coyotes who either had lost most of their body hair from skin diseases or were born with similar mutations causing them to lack hair in the first place as known from the Mexican dog breed known as the Xolo. Downes does however discover new species of fish and snails on Puerto Rico, so there was that.
This is a highly enjoyable read if you expect it to be as much of a travelogue and book about Puerto Rican folklore and history in general, as one strictly about the search for the Chupacabra. Taken as such there is one thing that feels like an "elephant in the room" when reading the book today, namely how much the description of the Puerto Rican chupacabra matches the final form taken by the extraterrestrial-human hybrid character Sil in the 1995 science-fiction film "Species". Which the first Chupacabra witness, Madelyne Tolentino, had seen in the cinema shortly before her sighting. The conspiracy theories about the Chupacabra being the result of genetic experiments in secret laboratories ran by the US Army, are also taken straight out of the plot to "Species". Amazingly enough this wasn't commonly noticed in cryptozoology circles until Benjamin Radford's book "Tracking the Chupacabra" (which extensively uses "The Island of Paradise" as a source) came out in 2010.
I would also recommend this to fans of travelogue books in general, who aren't averse to sidebars about demons, ghosts, UFOs, chupacabras and the like.
May 17, 2010
while not full of a wealth of cryptozoological fact and reams of evidence it was a good read as the author is very laid back. what it lacked for in "meat" it made up for in the odd history and science lesson.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews