Cryptid Corner: The Beast of Exmoor

As anyone who reads my blog will have surmised by now, I’m a cat owner. Not only do I own two cats, I’m actually pretty enamored with the whole Felidae family.

The cats are an amazing species of animal. They are the epitome of the natural hunting machine and they’re one of the most adaptable species on the planet.

There are cats that live in mountains, deserts, jungles, tundra, and plains. They range in size from that of the modern house cat to the huge tigers of Siberia.

Yet there are some places that cats don’t live. Or are there?

(Note that the picture below is not a picture of the Beast of Exmoor — it is a stock picture of a black panther)

The Beast of Exmoor is really no beast at all.

Although the name would have you believe it was a hulking monster from the annals of the Brothers Grimm, the Beast of Exmoor is actually more commonly described as a puma or panther.

This fascinating cryptid has been reported since the 1970s in the areas of Somerset and Devon of the United Kingdom where there are no official populations of large cats. Numerous witnesses have claimed to see these cats in the area, with many farmers blaming them for a loss of livestock.

Largely, the UK government maintains that there is no Beast of Exmoor and any sightings are merely exaggerated reports of house cats or dogs.

There have been a few pictures that have shown up over the years but skeptics maintain that these pictures are of common house cats since there are no other objects in the picture to indicate the size of the animal being photgraphed.

Cats have definitely shown their ability to survive almost anywhere, however, so is it possible that a few escaped big cats could lead to a sustainable population in the hills of Exmoor?

Or is it a breeding population of big cats that have escaped human detection for centuries?

Until such an animal is captured or more accurately photographed there is nothing to do but speculate on what exactly the Beast of Exmoor is.