The yale (also "centicore", Latin "eale") is a mythical beast found in European mythology. Most descriptions make it an antelope- or goat-like four-legged creature with large horns that it can swivel in any direction.
The name might be derived from Hebrew "yael", meaning "mountain goat".
The yale was first written about by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History. The creature passed into medieval bestiaries and heraldry, where it represents proud defense. It was used by the English Royal Family as a supporter for the arms of John, Duke of Bedford, and by England's Beaufort family. Margaret Beaufort's yale supporters can be seen over the gateways of Cambridge's Christ's College and St. John's College. There are also yales on the roof of St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. The Yale of Beaufort is a Queen's Beast at Kew Gardens, amongst others placed there after the Festival of Britain outside the gardens' palm house.
In the US, the yale as a heraldic symbol is weakly associated with Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Neither the University's coat of arms nor most of its other heraldry features the yale, and the school's primary sports mascot is a bulldog named Handsome Dan. But a yale is depicted on the official banner of the President of the University, which is carried and displayed during commencement exercises each spring, and yales can be seen above the gateway to Yale's Davenport College and the pediment of Timothy Dwight College. The student-run campus radio station, WYBCX Yale Radio, uses the yale as its logo.