Zookeeper claims several Pumas escaped from captivity in the 1980s
There is also claims that Mary Chipperfield, famous animal trainer, released through in three 1970s
THE myth of the Beast of Bodmin has captured the public's imagination for decades, and a new revelation reveals that the mysterious sightings of large cats prowling through moors of Devon and Cornwall could infact be pumas from a zoo.
The story goes that an unknown giant beast would attack farmer's livestock and feeding on rubbish, terrifying locals and tourists alike.
Arthur Conan Doyle used the mystery as the setting for his novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, so strong was the lure of the tale.
In 1995 the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said there was no evidence to suggest it existed.
But now the folklore has been potentially explained, as a local zoo owner has come up with an answer for all the sightings of a large cat-like creature stalking the moors.
They are apparently pumas that escaped from captivity.
Benjamin Mee, owner of Dartmoor Zoo - where a Lynx escaped from this month, says that the pumas made their escape before he bought the zoo, but is convinced the sightings are real.
He told the Times: "Puma were released in the Sparkwell area in the 1980s and there were many sightings of puma in this area up until 2010.
"I even saw one when I first came here in 2006.
"They used to come out into the village."
He saw a puma one night after he had picked up friends from the station, he said: "You could see the muscly cheeks and the broad muscly chest, and the rounded ears of a cat.
"We all swore , then said 'puma!' We got out of the car as it padded off into the woods.
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He said he worriedly drove to his zoo expecting to find one of his pumas had escaped, but his pumas were smaller and older than the one he saw.
Mr Mee added: "The farmers don't want the publicity and wouldn't tell you this if you asked but there were a lot of animals lost to pumas during those years."
There was a very harsh winter in 2010 and no sightings have been reported since - suggesting the animals may not have survived.
Another possible answer to the orginal mystery is the animals escaped while being transported from Chipperfield circus and the news was suppressed.
Danny Bamping, founder of the Big Cats Society, told the Daily Telegraph: "In the 1970s Plymouth zoo was owned by the Chipperfields, the circus family.
"When the zoo was shut down Mary Chipperfield agreed to transfer her five pumas to Ellis [Daw] at Dartmoor wildlife park.
"When they arrived, Ellis told me there were only two pumas in the consignment but five tags int he cage.
"Mary Chipperfield told Ellis she had broken down and that, somehow, three of the pumas had escaped.
"We think she let them out on the moor.
"She wasn't obliged to report it, because releasing exotic species wasn't illegal until 1981.
"It was just brushed under the carpet."
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