20 April 2023 , 07:59
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A terrified tourist encountered an unusual looking wild cat - which he believes could be the fabled Beast of Bodmin Moor.
The creature is said to be a large 'phantom' cat purported to live in Cornwall.
While visiting the area, Tom O'Shea captured the minute-long footage of something prowling around a field near St Neot, between Bodmin and Liskeard.
He said he spotted several wild looking 'normal' felines during his trip, but is adamant this one was different.
It has been described as at least twice the size of a normal domestic cat, with a distinctive tail that had a "life of its own".
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The 35-year-old, from Frome in Somerset, previously lived in Cornwall and was well-aware of the legends of big cats roaming moorlands there.
He jumped at the chance to record the "unusual-looking feline", he said.
Video footage appears to show an unusual looking wild cat prowling around the outskirts of moorland in Cornwall (Cornwall Live)
The animal appears to match the description of the fabled Beast of Bodmin Moor (Cornwall Live)After consulting a friend, he believes it could have been a jaguarundi wild cat - some of which are kept in captivity in Cornwall.
"I managed to get a video of it and have since shown it to someone who has a knowledge of animals," Dr O'Shea told CornwallLive.
"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".
After consulting a friend, Tom believes it could have been a jaguarundi wild cat (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"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."
"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."
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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.