The Beast of Exmoor: the 1983 South Molton sheep killings and the Royal Marines hunt

South Molton sits on the south-western edge of Exmoor, in North Devon. In the early months of 1983, sheep began dying at Drewstone Farm, near the town.

The farmer was Eric Ley, a name some accounts spell Eric Lay. The tally changes with the telling. One count gives over 100 sheep in the space of three months, "all of them apparently killed by violent throat injuries." Another says around two hundred. Another, forty lambs, with 86 kills recorded by late June.

21 April 1983. The story made the front page of a North Devon newspaper. Then it went national. The Daily Express offered a reward for footage of the animal.

At the end of April, Assistant Chief Constable Rupert Ormerod of Devon police reportedly called the killing "out of control." He asked the Royal Marines at Lympstone for help. On 1 May, Sergeant Major Andy Wilkins agreed to put together a sniper team. A military unit, sent after a cryptid.

The snipers watched at night through night-vision equipment. The operation was called Operation Beastie. Some Marines said they saw the Beast. One described something large and dark that fled before he could get a good look at it. Their commanding officer reportedly spoke of "high, almost human, intelligence." The animal "always moved with surrounding cover amongst hedges and woods."

No shot was fired. A high-powered round might pass straight through the creature's body and hit people or livestock. The Ministry of Defence reportedly feared the Marines might shoot reward-hunting amateur photographers. On 23 July 1983, after 78 days, the Marines were officially withdrawn. Other accounts describe a far shorter search, three nights or about a week.

29 May 1983. Willingford Farm, on Exmoor. Wayne Adams and Marcus White saw an animal "jet black with some white markings and powerfully built." Its head looked like a German shepherd dog's. But "the animal moved like a cat." That same evening a sheep was killed at Ash Mill.

A 16-year-old girl gave her own account. "At first I thought it was a cat but it was too big for that. It was black and had a long tail. There was white on each foot."

Superintendent Douglas McClary put it plainly: "Until we shoot the damned thing, we don't know what it is." Nothing was ever shot, although authorities studying paw prints believed the Beast to be a panther and some now attribute the kills to large dogs. Trevor Beer, author of The Beast of Exmoor: Fact or Legend?, thought feral dogs were killing livestock but that big cats were also in the area. Nigel Brierly came to favour a black puma, and Di Francis argued for an unknown native British big cat. Others point to leopards or pumas released after the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976; Natural England and Defra say they have received no credible reports of wild living or breeding big cats in Britain in recent years.

The hunt ended. The sightings did not. In 1984 Beer reported his own sighting near Drewstone. In 1990, Operation Exmoor, led by Lars Thomas, reportedly found hair identified as puma. The Beast of Exmoor became the model for Britain's alien big cat phenomenon. Related cases include the Beast of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.