Some say carcass legendary cat

CROYDE, England, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Some locals have speculated that an unidentified animal carcass that washed up on an English beach may have been the legendary Beast of Exmoor.

Police said two officers recovered the carcass after a member of the public reported a dead animal "the size of a calf with canine teeth" had washed up on a Croyde beach, The Daily Mail reported Thursday.

"It's a good five feet long, and it's got black fur," said one of the officers who responded to the beach. "It certainly looks quite beast-like with those teeth.'

Experts were working to try to identify the animal, police said.

"It almost definitely looks like it could be a beast of Exmoor," the second police officer said. "It's only about five miles away to Exmoor by sea, it could easily have floated down."

The Beast of Exmoor, reputedly a big cat resembling a black panther or puma, was first sighted in the 1970s and gained fame in 1983 when a farmer claimed a large animal had killed 100 of his sheep.