The Beast of Exmoor

Investigate the case of the mysterious big cat roaming the English countryside.

- 

Does a mysterious big cat stalk the wildest areas of southwestern England? According to some reports, a large creature with dark fur (possibly a black panther, puma or something else entirely) is said to roam Exmoor, a beautiful area of countryside in Somerset and Devon. Many people claim to have spotted the so-called Beast of Exmoor, even though photo and video evidence of the creature has never proved it.

Strange sightings

Tales of large felids (animals belonging to the cat family) in the UK date back to the 18th century, but sightings of the Beast of Exmoor were first reported in the 1970s. During the 1980s, something was killing sheep and lambs, and this added fuel to the idea that a fierce predator was on the prowl in the Exmoor area. In the early 1980s, a farmer in the area of South Molton, Devon, claimed to have lost more than 100 sheep in just three months – and their wounds seemed to suggest that the killer could have been a big cat. Such stories were taken seriously, and in 1988 a team of Royal Marines tried to track down the beast. However, they couldn’t find any trace of it.