Australia’s Sunshine Coast, famed for its beautiful beaches and prime surf locations, is being terrorised by a ‘mysterious beast’ supposedly tearing animals apart.
Farmers in the area have claimed that cages are being torn open and animals attacked by what they suspect to be a wild pack of dogs.
But one researcher has a far more controversial idea, he believes the abomination attacking the animals is a Yowie, a legendary Australian Bigfoot-style creature.
Dave Taylor, from Sunshine Coast Yowie Research, says that there have been numerous reports of the beast.
He told the Daily Mail:
We have over the last few weeks had countless reports of howls, smells and other evidence… it can be a very aggressive area.
Taylor’s even been into the bush with others, hunting the creature and believes he stumbled across its footprints and even claims to have seen the creature itself.
He says he spotted the yowie in the bush and that it walked around for a few steps and disappeared.
The footprint on the ground was very deep, so Taylor believes that it jumped from the bush onto the track and then disappeared with no other prints anywhere.
Taylor thinks that the footprints came from a juvenile and dismisses the idea that they’re man-made saying that they’re too broad and arched differently from a human footprint.
His group began their hunt after neighbours reported three guinea fowls being torn to pieces and their cage was ripped open by ‘something invisible’.
Whatever attacked the birds left blood and feathers behind, along with a ‘huge paw print’.
The birds aren’t the only animals attacked, in the last two months several sheep have gone missing and residents have reported hearing strange howls.
Mr Taylor said:
The howls were too high pitched and went on for too long to be a dog, which is what you usually hear for a yowie.
You can tell the difference because the dogs sound scared when we heard them last night instead of aggressive when they bark back at them.
One local also claimed to have seen one walking around in the nearby Glasshouse Mountains.
The creature was reportedly last seen in March 2014, when two yowie hunters claimed to have filmed the beast in South Queensland using an infrared tree camera, collected fur samples and found large footprints.
Unsurprisingly the scientific community rejects the existence of the creature.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.