A MYSTERIOUS beast which has been stalking villagers on the moor made famous by Sherlock Holmes – is actually just a fat cat.
Locals around Dartmoor, where the Hound of the Baskervilles was set, have described numerous sightings of the large predator in the wild in recent years.
But the mystery appears to have been solved by a lorry driver who found himself face-to-face with the animal and said it was just a chubby tabby.
Mick Jenkins, 42, a bulk tipper operator, told of the moment he spotted it near a quarry in Lee Moor, Devon.
He said: “I was driving to the quarry to collect a load of stone, and took a wrong turning.
“I was just spinning round when I saw this big cat.
“It stopped and stared at me. It looked quite menacing and I wasn’t sure whether to get out and take a closer look.
“It had a lot of fur and a really short, bobbly tail and it was quite stocky.
“I took a video of it then it slunk off into the woods.”
Dad-of-one Mick from Eastbourne, West Sussex, added: “I spoke to the woman at the desk at the quarry and she said there had been loads of sightings of big cats round here.
“I showed her the video and said ‘I think it’s just a domestic cat’.”
There have been numerous reports of large animals prowling the moors in Devon and Cornwall over the years.
The most famous was the Beast of Bodmin Moor – a huge black panther-like phantom feline allegedly spotted dozens of times since the 1970s.
Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously set his book The Hound of the Baskervilles on Dartmoor.
It featured a savage dog painted with phosphorus to make it look “diabolical”.
But local expert Danny Bamping, founder of the British Big Cat Society, last night said the latest sighting was not a wild animal.
He said: “I think there have been big cats, possibly leopards or panthers, on the moors in the past.
“Some were released when the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act came into force and made owning them as pets illegal.
“We get hundreds of sightings every year and there have been lots of reports in this area about a wild cat.
“This is one of the clearest videos we’ve seen and I’m afraid this just looks like a big fat cat.
“It’s probably a maine coon that needs a haircut.”
Devon and Cornwall Police revealed that there have been 13 separate big cat sightings reported between January 2021 and March 2025.
These include reports from members of the public who were convinced they had seen panthers, pumas, lions and tigers.
