Arooooooooooo!

The Hound of the Baskervilles has been caught on film! Well, ok, the inspiration for the A. Conan Doyle story anyway. The Daily Mail is about jumping up and down over the pictures of a "Demon of Dartmoor" that were taken recently. They are simply having a ball with this story.

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."

At the very end of the story the Daily Mail comes clean on this one. It is very likely nothing more than a large wild boar. The behavior fits perfectly. Wild boar are notoriously unaware of humans. So-called "animal rights activists" have raided local farms and torn down fencing leaving a large number of wild boar and feral pigs on the loose in the area. These are breeding rapidly, so there should soon be a steady supply of "hell hound" sightings.