Bodmin Beast sightings 2024: has anyone got recent footage?

The Bodmin Beast (or whatever we're calling it this year) has had a bit of a resurgence in sightings apparently. I saw a mention on a local Cornwall Facebook group about something large, black, and weird spotted near Altarnum a few weeks back. No photos though, obviously.

I'm genuinely curious whether this is a real ongoing phenomenon or whether it's just pattern-matching - big black dog, reports spread, suddenly everyone's seeing black cats and calling them exotic predators.

Has anyone here got recent sightings or footage? The old 1980s stuff is interesting but it's ancient history now. I'm more interested in what's actually happening on the moors in 2024.

The 'Beast' sightings have been going in cycles since the 1970s. Most are feral dogs, some are genuinely large wildcats, some are wishful thinking. The problem with investigating this stuff is that by the time you get there, it's gone. Excellent predator, whatever it is.

I spent three nights on Bodmin last summer with thermal imaging and motion cameras. Caught absolutely nothing except a badger and what might've been a polecat. But the locals in Bolventor all had stories - something had taken their rabbits, something large. Whether it's a lynx or just a big feral dog is impossible to say.

There's been credible zoological evidence for large cats living wild in UK woodland - escapes from private collections in the 1960s-70s. A lynx or a puma could absolutely survive on Bodmin if there's enough prey. Whether there *is* one right now is different question. The sightings could be folklore sustaining itself.

I'm more interested in what's actually happening on the moors in 2024.

Honestly? Probably nothing exotic, but definitely something unusual. There's a real predator up there taking livestock occasionally. Whether it's a big cat or just an unusually large feral dog is forensically impossible to determine without a fresh kill and proper examination.

The folklore is interesting though. Why big black cat legends persist across moorlands worldwide suggests there's maybe something *real* that inspired them originally.

I've got some blurry thermal footage from October near Warleggan but it's indistinct enough to be anything. Large quadruped, moved like a cat not a dog, but could also be a very clear video of a deer at the right angle. The problem with evidence is that it's only useful if it's unambiguous, and ambiguous is all we ever get.