Dartmoor Mystery Beast

[llewtrah]

Whatever it is, this hairy critter isn't a fox with mange!

Mystery surrounds 'big cat' photo

We've had tales of big cats on our moors for decades, mostly modern legend rather than confirmed ID, and "black dogs" have been part of English legend for hundreds of years. This one is completely the wrong shape for the usual leopard/puma/lynx - it's shaggy and bulky, possibly a wld boar or a pony photographed from an unusual angle.

[Jay Tea]

>groan<

Not one of those people had a compact with a zoom on it? I mean, it was right there, all they had to do was call somebody who 'did' have a zoom, but no, all we get in an indeterminable image. It sure looks interesting, but these creatures really do like to lurk in faraway places and out of focus areas

[llewtrah]

Possibly that was taken with a zoom. That's the problem with compact digital cameras once you reach the limit of optical zoom and use emag (or digital zoom). With my SLR I can add on more and more lenses/extensions and get to about 900mm and as long as the light is good and I can rest the heavy camera on something I can get a good close up.

I've taken comparison pics with my compact digital and my SLR cameras and the SLR gets way better pics over identical distances, but is also way too heavy to cart round unless I'm on a special trip (safari, airshow, zoo etc).

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

>groan<

It sure looks interesting, but these creatures really do like to lurk in faraway places and out of focus areas

But if mystery creatures were found hanging out about all over the place, then we'd all have seen one, and they wouldn't be mystery creatures.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

But if mystery creatures were found hanging out about all over the place, then we'd all have seen one, and they wouldn't be mystery creatures.

There was a mystery creature on my garage roof last night. It turned out to be a cat with burrs and leaves. Darn mystery critter trailed foliage all over the house before submitting to a good brushing and revealing its true identitiyy .

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

There was a mystery creature on my garage roof last night. It turned out to be a cat with burrs and leaves. Darn mystery critter trailed foliage all over the house before submitting to a good brushing and revealing its true identitiyy .

A cat sniper in a Ghillie suit?

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

A cat sniper in a Ghillie suit?

If she's stalking the food bowl she'd be better off using carpet tiles as camo

[Andrew of Ware]

As the party was made up of American bird watchers you would have thought that one of them would have had a high quality camera with a zoom (if not all of them).

In addition the article mentions some school children climbing the tor. You can see them in the top right of the photo. Did none of them have a camera (they clearly spotted the 'beast' as they are watching it).

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

As the party was made up of American bird watchers you would have thought that one of them would have had a high quality camera with a zoom (if not all of them).

Well it's clearly not a bird, so they probably ignored it. and complained later that they had been ripped off.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

The one in the first shot looks kinda like a black wolverine. But the chances of a black wolverine creeping about Dartmoor are pretty slim.

[Andrew of Ware]

Danny Bamping, a spokesman for the 'British Big Cats Scoiety', in the article in the OP said,

"I've studied the pictures and I just can't see it being a big cat," he told BBC News.

"I wouldn't completely rule out a dog or a pony, but my money would be on a hairy wild boar".

If so this would be remarkable as boars have been extinct in the wild in England for hundreds of years. I am not familiar with hairy wild boars, but the tail of the animal in the picture does not look boar-like.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

Danny Bamping, a spokesman for 'British Big Cats Scoiety', in the article in the OP said,

If so this would be remarkable as boars have been extinct in the wild in England for hundreds of years. I am not familiar with hairy wild boars, but the tail of the animal in the picture does not look boar-like.

Wild boars have been roaming England for a couple of decades following escapes from boar farms. They are pretty hairy/bristly. On farms they are often crossed with domestic pigs. Surely you heard/read the news in the last couple of years about escapes and of deliberate freeing of wild boars?

Possibly a grazing pony with the head to the right and rump to the left?

[Eddylizard]

It's The Congo Black Dog known as, or registerd anyway as 'Big Fang'.

[Blatherskite]

I've noticed that big black cats - actual big black house cats - can be misleading in size when seen from a distance. It's as if something about the silhouette of black cats in particular throws you off about about the scale of its environment. I've seen a number of black cats locally and thought at first that they were dogs.

But that thing in the photo could be any black animal smaller than a sheep, and I'm not so sure about the size of sheep. The Big Cats of England are fun because I can't think of any legend that focusses so much on the intrinsic creepiness of something quite normal being out of place.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

Beast of Dartmoor 'is my pet dog'

[BluesScale]

Yep, that looks like a Newfie :-) I like Newfoundlands. I have never met one that wasn't as freindly as could be. They have knocked me over a few times (and I am well over 6') but only by being too big for human sized houses.

I suspect that they are pleasant because everyone is nice to them. Well, really, who would want to pick a fight with something built like that.

Blues.

[llewtrah]

It looks like the Newfie.

The photographer is in denial. A pet dog just isn't a good story so he's going to insist it was a cat even though everything about it was all wrong.

[Brad from Georgia]

I thought the mystery beast of Dartmoor turned out to be Mrs. Eugenia Sweppings, 43, of Newton Abbot.

It certainly looks lot like a newfie , but it also could be a black ram, shetland pony (with head down or sideways) or wild boar, it does not look like a cat. The body is far too short.

From the newer link, the guy said:
"It had very thick shoulders, a long, thick tail with a blunt end and small round ears."

Uh...... how can you see that from that photo in the first link? Even with the close-up... If he was as far away as he supposidly was, how could he tell that this thing had "small round ears"? Liar.