The Beast of Bodmin Is...A Jaguarundi??

In The Red Paper 2022 Volume II: Felids I refer to jaguarundi in England. Not widespread but confined to an area of SE England where they have bred and been protected by market gardeners going back to at least the 1980s. I have video footage of one.

So when I am told that Corwall Live has posted video footage of a jaguarundi on Bodmin Moor I said “Great!” I wanted to see this.

I did and I saw all the lovely photos of jaguarundi that had nothing to do with the story

Former local man films 'creature' that fits Beast of Bodmin Moor reports

Video footage appears to show an unusual looking wild cat prowling around the outskirts of moorland in the UK. Tourists on holiday captured the 'creature' on video in Cornwall .

The footage, which is over a minute in length, shows the black cat casually walking around a field near St Neot, between Bodmin and Liskeard. The man who recorded the footage said he spotted a number of wild looking 'normal' cats during his recent trip - but says this one was different.

He estimated the cat was at least double the size of an ordinary domestic cat and described it as fitting the description of the Beast of Bodmin Moor. He said its tail was so distinctive "it had a life of its own".

Tom O'Shea, 35, from Frome in Somerset, used to live in Cornwall and having often heard of the legends of big cats roaming the moors, jumped at the chance to record the "unusual-looking feline". After consulting a friend he believes it could have been a jaguarundi wild cat.

"I managed to get a video of it and have since shown it to someone who has a knowledge of animals," Dr O'Shea said. "He suspects that it is a jaguarundi based on the details in the video."

He continued to say it would be "unusual" if it were but "not totally out of the realm of reason". "We were quite excited by this as this would certainly fit with past reports of the beast and we can attest to the creature we saw being roughly double the size of an average domestic cat with a much thicker and longer tail.

"That said, we did also see a number of rather wild-looking but definitely 'normal' cats wandering about the place during our stay."

You can view the video footage at the top of this page and see what you thinkhttps://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/former-local-man-films-creature-8362522

"What was really kind of distinctive about it is that it was definitely much longer than your average domestic cat and had really bizarre markings on it," he continued. It was really unusual and after a few seconds of looking at it straight on, it moved in a really unusual way as well. It didn't move like a usual cat.

"He said the "creature" emerged from a hedgerow during Storm Noa and appeared again the following day when he caught it on video. "It's tail almost had a life of its own," he added.”

Well, I sat down, full screen mode on and...I waited. Oh...it seems that the blackish blog is the animal I am supposed to be looking at? In fact I see no evidence of a jaguarundi tail (and they are impressive). In fact the cat has its tail in the air at one point and even a cursory glance shows that this is a black domestic cat. I ought to point out that a description of a jaguarundi sounds nothing like the oft reported Beast of Bodmin.

What we see on the video is a very long distance view of a domestic cat pure and simple. For a brief minute I held my breath but my enlargement of a frame from the video proves the point.