The Beast of Exmoor is a cryptozoological (cryptozoology
is the study of rumored or mythological animals presumed cat usually
having thick soft fur and being unable to roar) that is rumored to roam
the fields of Devon, 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.
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.
The Beast of Exmoor
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. 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.
The Beast itself
Believers in the Beast's existence claim it is 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 physical evidence of the Beast's existence
has been discovered, a fact which has been explained by some as proof
that the Beast is from another dimension and can enter and leave our
plane of existence at will. 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.
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".
The Beast of Exmoor
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