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Beast of Exmoor

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Post  Admin 10/26/2008, 11:52 pm

Beast of Exmoor


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



The Beast of Exmoor is a cryptozoological cat that is rumored to roam the fields of Devon in the United Kingdom, slaying livestock at times. Most scientists and casual observers believe the beast to be purely mythical, but some natives of Devon continue to insist today that they have seen the Beast with their own eyes.


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Characteristics


Although there are considerable differences in the eyewitness testimony, the Beast is most frequently described as a feline creature, roughly the size of a puma, and dark in color. The Beast is said to stand very low to the ground, and to be somewhere between four and eight feet in length (from nose to tail), with the ability to leap over 6-foot-tall fences with some ease. No such cat is native to England.[edit]


Evidence


No physical evidence for the Beast's existence has been discovered; evidence for its existence rests on eyewitness accounts of sightings. The lack of physical evidence has been seen by some as proof that the Beast is from another dimension and can enter and leave our plane of existence at will.[edit]


First sightings


Sightings of the Beast of Exmoor were first reported in the 1970s, although the period of its notoriety began in 1983, when a South Molton farmer named Eric Ley claimed to have lost over a hundred sheep in the space of three months, all of them apparently killed by violent throat injuries. The Daily Express offered a reward for the capture or slaying of the Beast. Farm animal deaths in the area have been sporadically blamed on the Beast ever since.[edit]


Eyewitness testimony


Eyewitness testimony has produced a number of different descriptions. Most eyewitness accounts claim the animal is a large cat, sometimes as large as a puma, other times as a panther, with jet-black fur. Others claim that the creature is either tan or dark gray. Some believe that there are more than one creature; perhaps, one is tan and one is black.[edit]


Photographic evidence


Photographs have been produced on at least two occasions and both appear to show a big cat with the features of both a puma and a panther. Sceptics point out that such photographs invariably show the animal without any objects in frame that might give an indication of its size, leading to the suspicion that the photographs are of domestic cats.[edit]


Government involvement


In 1988, in response to increased reports of livestock death and sightings of the Beast, the Ministry of Agriculture ordered the Royal Marines to send sharpshooters into the Devon hills—although some Marines claimed to have seen the Beast fleetingly, no shots were fired, and the number of attacks on livestock dwindled. Ultimately, the Marines were recalled from the field, after which the attacks on the local sheep allegedly increased. By 1987, the creature was connected to over 200 farm animal deaths. More recent attacks were reported in 1995 and 2001. The Ministry continued to study the problem into the mid-1990s, before concluding that the Beast was either a hoax or myth, and that the alleged sightings had been mistaken identifications of creatures native to Devonshire.[edit]


Explanations

[edit]


Misidentification


Most observers and scientists believe that the sightings are merely of escaped domestic cats whose size has been greatly exaggerated, or else of large dogs that have been misidentified. The livestock deaths have often been attributed to these large dogs, although human attacks on the sheep have also been suspected.[edit]


Escaped pets


Although large cats are not native to England, rich landowners have often kept exotic animals on their estates. It is conceivable that some may have escaped and over the years and created a small group of big cats living hidden in the Devonshire countryside.[edit]


Hybrids


Some descriptions of the Beast attribute it the features of both a puma and a leopard. Although these animals have been hybridised by Carl Hagenbeck in captivity, the offspring were always found to be dwarfed and short-lived; one such hybrid is preserved in the Zoological Museum at Tring. The name for such a hybrid is a Pumapard. Because male big cat hybrids are always sterile, a self-perpetuating race of puma-leopard hybrids is not possible. The apparent mix of features is probably due to inexpert witnesses rather than hybrid origin.[edit]


Supernature


Others believe there is something more supernatural happening here, and that the cat is a demonic creature. Since no one has ever caught or killed one of these big cats and since it seems to escape out of tight situations very easily, the cat seems to possess both superior intelligence and stealth capabilities.[edit]


The Beast in popular culture


The Beast of Exmoor is now seen by many in Devon as a whimsical fiction—St. John's Garden Centre in Barnstaple, for example, now features an animatronic leopard that has been nicknamed "The Beast of Exmoor".[edit]


See also



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