White ‘Beast of Bodmin’ Source: This Is Cornwall March 7, 2000
A Bodmin family are the latest to spot what they believe to be one of the area's mysterious big cats – but this time the animal was white.
And chewed bones found in the area where the mysterious animal was spotted are now being looked at by Newquay Zoo.
Derek and Christine Day, and their daughter Lisa who was celebrating her 17th birthday, were amazed to see a large white creature sitting in open land near their home to the south of Bodmin.
The animal was about 200 yards away, so Derek grabbed his binoculars for a closer look.
"It was definitely a cat," said Derek. "It was very big, bigger than a large dog, but the most striking thing was its colour. It was bright white.
"It had small ears and a solid bushy tail that was about 18ins long."
"It sat there for a while, it looked straight at me with its yellowy eyes then skulked off very quickly just like a cat low to the ground towards the railway line."
Christine called out to her parents who were visiting from Manchester. They caught a glimpse from the bedroom window.
Christine's father Charles Sims, 72, said: "We've seen the pictures of the beast of Bodmin and they are always a darker colour. Although this one was white, it is certainly not the kind of thing we expected to see when we visited."
Neighbour Clifford German, 43, was also outside when his attention was drawn to the animal. He saw another big cat six years ago in about the same spot.
"That was one of the first ones spotted. It was a dark one," he said. "This one was a white colour. I looked at Derek and he just stood there completely amazed."
Derek, 41, went over to where he had seen the cat sitting and the grass was flattened. There was no sign of paw prints but a couple of days later he and Cornish Guardian photographer Tim Neale found remains of chewed bones.
Mike Thomas, of Newquay Zoo, said this was the first report he had had of a big cat that is white.
"Albino cats are very rare," he said. "They tend not to live very long as they are so visible. There have only been three albino pumas ever recorded in North America where the cats are commonly found.
"If there is one around, you would expect more people to see it."
He added: "Cats tend to return to the same place to give birth and in my opinion it is the perfect time of year to do that. They would then be out hunting to feed their young and they would do that at dawn and dusk.
"The timing is right, the location is right, but the colour is very unusual."
Mr Thomas will be having a close look at the bones and should be able to tell from teeth marks what kind of animal had been eating it.
by Nichola Burrell
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