A mysterious creature spotted near a rural Texas community in the dead of night has left wildlife officials baffled.

The chilling black-and-white footage was captured by a trailcam outside of Dublin, northeast of Dallas, showing what appeared to be a small animal walking on four legs that were different sizes and had lumps down its back.

Michael 'Dumas' Demel, 49, from nearby Schulenburg, showed images of the creature to friends, family and neighbors who suggested it was a skinwalker, alien or even a chupacabra – a notorious blood-sucking cryptid from American folklore.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department was none the wiser, telling Demel that 'due to the quality of the image a positive identification of the animal is not possible,' adding that it was 'too small to be a whitetail deer fawn.'

'I have three different cameras at three different hunting areas – they catch coyote, deer, bobcats, rabbits, raccoons, foxes,' Demel told Pen News.

'I look at approximately 100 plus pics from the three cameras daily, but that was the only photo it showed up on.

'My first reaction was something didn't look right, so I stopped on the picture to zoom in. 'My first instinct was that it was a monkey.'

The eerie creature appeared to have a long snout, small top of the head and lumps down its back, which is why some of his friends claimed it was a skinwalker.

Skinwalkers are part of a Navajo legend that states they were once healers and people of medicine who were corrupted by their own power and turned to evil, becoming supernatural beings.

The Navajo word for skinwalker is yee naaldlooshii, which translates to 'by means of it, it goes on all fours.' 

The story, which was told to Navajo children, states that skinwalkers can transform into an animal, possess another being, or disguise themselves.

In human form, skinwalkers are reported to have glowing red eyes and animalistic qualities barely concealed behind a human face.

'I showed it to neighbors, family and friends. I got everything from a skin-walker, a monkey, a chupacabra, an alien,' Demel said.

'You hear stories of chupacabra in south Texas areas.'

A chupacabra, which the Spanish word for 'goat sucker,' is also a legendary creature and is known for killing livestock.

Sightings began in the late 1980s when Puerto Rican famers claimed a dog-sized creature with lizard-like skin and a pronounced backbone was attacking their animals.

The first chupacabra report in Texas came from Cuero rancher Phylis Canion in 2017, who described it as having large, fanged teeth, big ears and bony limbs.

She also said it had longer back legs than front legs, giving it an unnatural arch.

And that description was similar to what Demel captured on his trailcam, which he has had for around 10 years and never captured anything so bizarre.

'It's just out of the ordinary,' he said. 'I've seen hundreds of thousands of game pictures over the years and spent my whole life in the woods hunting – and this was a first.'

The true identity of the creature remains a mystery.