The Beast of Exmoor

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

• View Exmoor Events for this week
• Search Exmoor Events Calendar
• Add your Event to the Exmoor Calendar
• Add the Exmoor Calendar to your website