The Bodmin Beast is back?—sightings ramping up this autumn

I've been monitoring reports from the Bodmin area (Cornwall) and there's been a noticeable uptick in "big cat" sightings since August. I'm talking at least six credible reports of what people are describing as a large black feline, roughly the size of a puma or small lion.

The original Bodmin Beast hysteria was in the 1980s and largely died down, but it seems like something's been spotted recently. I've got screenshots of social media posts from local hiking groups and I'm trying to collate actual sighting data to see if there's a pattern.

Two possibilities: Either there's an escaped exotic pet or small breeding population of wild cats in the Cornish countryside, or we're dealing with a cryptid. Either way, if something's being sighted consistently, we should investigate properly.

The big cat sightings across Britain are probably a combination of misidentification, escaped exotic pets from the 1970s-80s when people bought big cats as pets, and genuine big cats that established feral populations. The Bodmin Beast is almost certainly a real animal of some kind - just possibly not the exotic species people imagine.

I've got a mate who works in wildlife management in Cornwall and he reckons there might actually be a small population of feral cats (likely descended from escaped pets) living in remote areas. Cats look much bigger in poor light, and if you catch a glimpse of something large and dark, you assume it's huge. Doesn't rule out actual exotic cats, but it's worth considering.

if something's being sighted consistently, we should investigate properly

The Bodmin Beast thing always struck me as slightly suspect because it got massive media attention in the 80s and then sightings kind of... dried up. If there was actually a big predator, you'd expect more consistent reports. The resurgence now might just be copycat sightings triggered by people remembering the old stories.

Please actually investigate this properly if you're interested. Track dates, times, locations, witness descriptions. If there's something genuinely unusual in Cornwall, proper data collection could help identify what it is. Don't just rely on social media reports - those are usually embellished.