Hello and welcome to Mysteries of Science. My name's Michael and I'm the acting deputy editor

of Science and Nature, a monthly magazine from the team behind the week junior. And I'm Jenny the

features editor. On this podcast, we explore the strange phenomena and bizarre events that have left

scientists scratching their heads, and despite their best

efforts, remain well and truly unsolved.

Today, we're roaming the English countryside, Exmoor, to be exact, which is in Somerset

and Devon.

Yes, but we're not here just on a leisurely walk. We're investigating reports of a large

creature with dark fur, which has been spotted around these parts, possibly a

black panther, a puma or something else entirely. Yes, many people claim to have spotted the

so-called beast of Exmoor, even though photo and video evidence of the creature has never proved it.

Well Michael, perhaps we can solve this case once and for all. Say, Jenny, what's that?

Over there. Where? There. We better go take a look. This is mysteries of science.

So Michael, the beast of X-Maw, where do we start? Well, as most people seem to think that the

beast is a big cat of some sort, who better to speak to than a big cat expert.

Hi, I'm Rick Minter. I'm a podcaster, and I produce a podcast called Big Cat Conversations. And every two or three weeks, we hear at least one witness who's encountered a big cat in Britain, different parts of Britain, and we analyse that and discuss it

and we compare it with lots of other reports. I've also written a book on the subject, and before

that I was a policy officer, policy analyst for a government agency to do with wildlife

and the countryside. So I've moved from that to

Big Cats in my early retirement. Welcome to the show, Rick. So tell us, what got you interested in

big cats? It did all start from seeing one. Before I saw one, I really hadn't got a view on it.

I'd really never given the matter any thought, even though back 20 odd years

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