Beast of Dartmoor mystery solved as zoo admits it ‘released Pumas into the wild in 1980s’

There is speculation over whether the animals were released by accident.

“There were lots of rumours and many different stories about how they got out,” Mr Mee said.

“Some say they were released from the old zoo either by mistake or on purpose – we just don’t know – while some others say they were being transported here at the time from the zoo in Plymouth.

“They either came from here or were being transported here from the old Central Park zoo and did not quite make it.

“I have no knowledge of the circumstances about how it happened. But at the time there were three pumas that should have been [at Dartmoor Zoo] that were not.

“I have had it verified from very reliable sources over the years – gamekeepers and farmers and I am totally sure that I saw one myself.

“The exact reasoning behind it I can not comment on. I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not accusing anyone of anything – but there is a clear line of puma sightings that developed from the 1980s.

“They lived through several generations and enough were released to breed. This terrain will support them.

“They are elusive big cats and still able to forage. The one thing that is always consistent in the story is the number – which was three.”

The owner also said he saw one of the beasts in the local village ten years ago, and said:

“Puma were released in the Sparkwell area in the 1980s and there were many sightings of puma in this area up until 2010… They used to come out into the village. I saw one by a crossing.

“The farmers don’t want the publicity and wouldn’t tell you this if you asked but there were a lot of animals lost to the pumas during those years.”

Mr Mee believes that the Pumas went on to breed, and added:

“I think two whole generations of pumas managed to live on the moor until the winter of 2010.

“When the weather got so cold, they all died.”

There have been more than 200 big-cat sightings in Devon and Cornwall over the last 14 years.

Since the claims, Herman Welch, 75, of Plymouth, Devon, has said he was nearly mowed down by a ‘black panther’ near the zoo in 2004 but, when he reported the incident, nobody believed him.

He said: “I was driving on my way to Sparkwell when this thing jumped out right in front of me, less than six feet away.

“It stopped and looked right at me and then ran off into the woods.

“I stayed for a while and was hoping somebody would have been driving behind me, but no-one was around.

“I got to the golf course and I said ‘I’ve just seen a bloody panther jump in front of me’ and my friends just laughed and said ‘Hermann, don’t be daft.’

“No-one believed me. They said ‘if a panther was roaming around here, Hermann, half the town would be out looking for it.”

This comes as the hunt for lynx on the loose, Flaviu, enters its second week.

The search team have repositioned larger humane traps to catch the two-year-old Carpathian and a recording of its mother has been broadcast across the moor in an attempt to locate the animal.

There have been multiple sightings and Mr Mee said the zoo have recently found “fresh” footprint and believe he will be back soon.

He added: “We now have the exact call of his mother and his mother’s bedding – so we are trying to lure him with that.

“Experts believe it is only matter of time before he slips up.”