Beast of Bodmin
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| Beast of Bodmin | ||
|---|---|---|
| Creature | ||
| Name: | Beast of Bodmin | |
| Classification | ||
| Grouping: | Alien big cat | |
| Data | ||
| Last Sighted: | Present day | |
| Country: | United Kingdom. | |
| Region: | Bodmin Moor, Cornwall | |
| Habitat: | Moorland | |
| Status: | (Status) | |
The Beast of Bodmin is a phantom wild cat (or possibly a number of them) which ranges in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Bodmin Moor became a centre of these sightings with occasional reports of mutilated slain livestock: the alleged leopard-like cats of the same region came to be popularly known as the Beast of Bodmin Moor.
Contents |
[edit] Controversy
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food decided to conduct an official investigation in 1995. The study's findings decided there was "no verifiable evidence" of exotic felines loose in Britain, and that the mauled farm animals could have been attacked by common indigenous species. The report stated that "the investigation could not prove that a 'big cat' is not present."
Less than a week after the government report, a boy was walking by the River Fowey when he discovered a large cat skull. Measuring about four inches wide and seven inches long (10 × 18 cm), the skull was minus its lower jaw but possessed two sharp, prominent incisors that suggested that it might have been a leopard. The story hit the national press at about the same time of the official denial of alien big cat evidence on Bodmin Moor.
The skull was sent to the Natural History Museum in London for verification. They determined that it was a genuine skull from a young male leopard, but also found that the cat had not died in Britain and that the skull had been imported as part of a leopard-skin rug. The back of the skull was cleanly cut off in a way that is commonly used to mount the head on a rug. There was an egg case inside the skull that had been laid by a tropical cockroach that could not possibly be found in Britain. There were also cut marks on the skull indicating the flesh had been scraped off with a knife, and the skull had begun to decompose only after a recent submersion in water.
[edit] Recent sightings
Sightings of the Beast of Bodmin Moor continue. In October 1997, officials from Newquay Zoo claimed to identify paw prints left in mud to the south of Bodmin Moor as the tracks of a cougar. Soon after that discovery, an alleged photograph of the Bodmin Beast materialized, purporting to show an adult female cougar. The authenticity of this piece of evidence remains unconfirmed.
There have also been recent sightings in Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire.
There was frenzy in 2004, when the cat was believed to have been spotted over 50 times in the south of Scotland.
[edit] Popular culture
- The Beast of Bodmin Moor was briefly mentioned in the cult film Dog Soldiers.
- The Beast of Bodmin Moor is the subject of a VISA commercial shot in Queenstown, New Zealand featuring Lance Henriksen.
