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Post details: Demon Beast of Dartmoor Photographed

07/30/07

12:38:22 am, by

, 429 words

Categories: Paranormal - News and News Items, Crypto & Mythical Creatures

Demon Beast of Dartmoor Photographed

I'm going to toss this one out to you gentle reader. What do you think of the image above? What kind of a creature may it be? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this one.

Here is a snippet from the article about the photo above:

Legend has it that a four-legged fiend with glowing eyes and a blood-curdling howl stalks this very spot.

Which makes these pictures of a mystery creature taken near Hound Tor on Dartmoor more intriguing than ever.

Seen only yards away from a party of schoolchildren, the animal has a thick, shaggy coat, rounded ears and large front limbs which would be powerful enough to tear human flesh.

Some say it is a wild dog or cat. More fanciful theories include wolverine or bear.

Whatever its identity, the Beast of Dartmoor is giving some farmers sleepless nights because they fear it will prey on their stock.

Falconer Martin Whitley, who photographed the creature, said: "It was walking along a path about 200 yards away from me.

"It was black and grey and comparable in size to a miniature pony. It had very thick shoulders, a long, thick tail with a blunt end and small round ears.

"Its movements appeared feline, then bear-like sprang to mind. There was a party climbing on the tor opposite making a racket but it ignored them completely."

A pack of spectral dogs known as the Whist Hounds or Hounds of Hell is said to roam the area according to local folklore, which inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write the Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The author is said to have been inspired by the legend of Squire Richard Cabell, a keen hunter from Brook Manor, Buckfastleigh.

The squire was rumoured to have sold his soul to the Devil and after he died on July 5, 1677, a phantom pack of black hunting dogs with glowing red eyes is said to have raced across Dartmoor on the night of his interment, breathing fire and howling at his tomb.

According to local legend, the demonic hounds have roamed the moor ever since and can often be seen around the anniversary of his death prowling around the grave trying to get the promised soul for the Devil.

The founder of the national research network Big Cats in Britain, Mark Fraser, said: "It looks like a wolverine or a bear in some shots and a big wild dog in others. It is a very strange animal."

Full Article Here

Our thanks go out to MsDemmie for sending this article our way.

Permalink 12 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Sue [Visitor]

· http://lachansondephoenix.blogspot.com

hahahahahahahah!

Isn't that a Buffalo.. or Bison.. whatever they're called!? Oh my.
Yes, yes it is...see?:

http://www.eaglespiritlodge.ca/buffalo/buffalo6.jpg

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 07:47

Comment from: Trowbridge [Visitor]

Going to need a better picture than that. The first thing that entered my head, before I read the words was Bison,than Dog. No way to tell scale. Very mangy. A good wash and brush-up perhaps?

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 07:57

Comment from: Sue [Member]

· http://seminars.torontoghosts.org/

Sue -> It does look like the photo in the link you posted. The question then is why it is roaming about in England? The wallabies they found roaming around in Scotland really intrigued me, so you never know.

Trowbridge -> I think they'll need to catch it to make a proper ID, but it does resemble a bison eh!

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 08:54

Comment from: Chris (remoteplanet) [Visitor]

· http://psychometry.psican.org

Would you say more of these pictures cropped up since the advent of cell phone cameras? (Not sure if that's a cell phone pic or an enlargement from a digital camera, but the thought does occur to me that more pics and vids are being made with cell phone madness running rampant out there.)

As for the second picture in the Daily Mail article, it reminds me of a wolverine. Britain does seem to have many mysteries beasties, doesn't it?

What do we have in Canada: Sasquatch, Ogopogo... since we have such a large variety of wildlife here already, maybe we have fewer crypto-creatures to be concerned about? ;-)

Just some thoughts from a Monday mind, hehe!

Chris

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 09:38

Comment from: Jackie [Visitor]

· http://aideni.blogspot.com

I would have said bison, but the movement and bending of it's front legs resemble that more of a bear. Huh. It's intriguing! I wonder what it could be! Not a wild hog, their legs aren't that long, nor do their knees in front bend in that direction.

how about a bizarre animal experiment gone awry?

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 11:03

Comment from: Stu [Visitor]

· http://quebec.pararesearchers.org/index.html

It looks like a buffalo IMO. As to what it would be doing in England, well it could be stuffed or otherwise hoaxed. If not than it's truly unusual.

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 11:35

Comment from: Lynn Tucker [Visitor]

· http://www.motivated-motion.blogspot.com

I see I am not the only one who thinks this is a young bison.
Our friends have a large wolfhound that walks like that too.
Maxamillion is as deep in the chest and scraggly haired as this fellow.
And ole Max tucks in his tail when he walks. So there are two choices.

My first one is bison though

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 13:48

Comment from: MsDemmie [Visitor]

· http://msdemmie.wordpress.com/

I thought the two pictures looked to be of different "animals" ........ the enlarged one looks like a bison to me - the larger shot looks more wolverine.

Maybe there are two beasts of Dartmoor !

Permalink 07/30/07 @ 16:20

Comment from: Andrea [Visitor]

· http://paranormalstories.blogspot.com

Looks like a buffalo or bison to me.

Permalink 07/31/07 @ 04:58

Comment from: Chris (remoteplanet) [Visitor]

· http://psychometry.psican.org

Interesting comment on BBC today on this: "I wouldn't completely rule out a dog or a pony, but my money would be on a hairy wild boar." - Danny Bamping, British Big Cats Society

Permalink 07/31/07 @ 15:06

Comment from: MsDemmie [Visitor]

· http://msdemmie.wordpress.com/

And the answer is .......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=472909&in_page_id=1770

Permalink 08/03/07 @ 17:27

Comment from: Arthur [Visitor]

It's a Elephant.. look the size of this legs, and this aspect, big but not so big.. i can see preety well its a elephant xD

sorry my english..
im brazilian

see ya

Permalink 02/13/08 @ 17:35

Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Information on this blog is based on the thoughts and discussion of Matthew Didier and Sue Darroch... two paranormal investigators/researchers based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Through Paranormal Studies and Investigations Canada, ParaResearchers, The Ghosts and Hauntings Research Societies, and several other groups, Matthew and Sue have a combined experience of well over twenty-years in the field of the paranormal. Feel free to contact the blog author via admin at psican.org for further information.