Beast Of Bodmin - Experts Ponder The Mystery
Source: Guardian Unlimited Press Association Wildlife experts are making a fresh attempt to unravel the mysteries of the so-called Beast of Bodmin.
Zoologists, biologists and photographers are meeting at a conference in Plymouth to discuss whether big cats are roaming the countryside.
An audience of 100 and a representative from Devon and Cornwall Police will listen to the experts' views.
A monitoring committee to co-ordinate big cat sightings is expected to be set up at a later date.
Conference organiser Paul Crowther, a photography lecturer at Plymouth College of Further Education, said he was still neutral about whether big cats were on the loose.
In 1996 he was called out to see footprints in a golf course bunker at Saltash, Cornwall, which fellow conference organiser, biologist Chris Moiser, believed were made by a big cat.
But Mr Crowther had yet to see a convincing photograph - while one of his students had even admitted being involved in faking a picture which appeared in the press.
"I have a reputation as a debunker of images," he said. "A lot of people say they have seen it and all I am saying is 'Prove it'. The problem with looking at images is a lot of people see what they want to see."
There have been numerous reported sightings of big cats in the west country in recent years, including one by a group of Cornwall county councillors who said they saw an animal up to six feet long near St Austell.
Believers say the creatures could be descended from exotic pets released after the introduction of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in 1976, which made it illegal to keep some creatures without a licence.
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk
Friday March 24, 2000