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8:03 am
November 19, 2008
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Logisti
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Queen of the Nerds said:
One day I saw a hawk pick up a rabbit in its talons and try to fly away with it. The hawk was still young so it wasn't very strong and it dropped the rabbit from about 15-20 feet high. The rabbit landed on its feet and ran away.
That's a very interesting idea! They'd have to be flying dangerously close to the house, or else 30-40 feet high when it happened though. Still, I suppose it's possible.
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7:36 am
November 20, 2008
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Bad Dog
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| Investigator in Training | posts 2 |
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Really good story, I have read alot about the wild and many animals walk in their own tracks, like the back foot lands where the front was, and some herds do it as well so it looks like one animal has walked by on 2 legs but it was 20 – 4 legged fury animals, so not uncommon to see just 2 feet in the snow at all. As for where did it go this devil rabbit, well see again the wild animals play dead alot as well, it must of heard you guys freakin out so it hid there until you all left, bet if you went back at a later time you would of found tracks leaving.
Nice to know I am not the only one who gets freaked out over animal tracks, I was walking in the snow with a friend and we came across cat tracks, cougar to be accurate, so we followed them for about a half mile when we came up to the same spot where we found them on this trail, we found our footsteps, we looked at each other like uhhhh did we do a circle? nowhere did these tracks leave the trail or came onto the trail and it was just one set, so we followed them again and came back to the same spot, I determined we were being followed by this cat and too turn and go back to the car , we went backwards on the trail and we then came across tracks that left the trail near our car, but it goes to show this animal was walking in its own tracks and fooled us for sure. Had this feeling after we saw our tracks someone was watching us.. So I say go with the most logical and you will find the devil rabbit..
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12:04 pm
November 25, 2008
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SkepticalRader
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As I was reading this thread I developed my own theory which I think Queen of the Nerds got pretty close to. To my mind I believe that this is the most plausible explanation and was surprised that no one else posited this theory.
A rabbit approached the basement window of the house and was carried away by a flying predator. The bang on the window was the brief, but unsuccessful attempt by the rabbit to escape from the clutches of its captor.
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7:56 pm
November 27, 2008
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Wallydraigle
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| Investigator | posts 114 |
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That's what I was thinking. A weak or injured rabbit could be limping along, not leaving a full set of prints. For whatever reason it went past your window, attracted the attention of an owl, who then snatched the rabbit and bumped the window, or else caused the rabbit to bump the window in the commotion. Owls often live in close contact with humans, and hunt at night. Rabbits generally aren't out at night, but if it was injured or sick, it might have been rejected by its warren and couldn't get underground. There very well might not be any blood at the site, because owls snatch and fly away to eat their prey off the ground.
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3:43 am
February 15, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Logisti said:
I just came across something interesting that bears on this story. The original story I remember reading took place in a small town in Pennsylvania and was about the JERSEY Devil (a cryptozoological creature who's existence hasn't been proven), so that's why I associated the single-hoofprints in the snow with "Devil".
I knew I had heard something like this before and began poking around. And…I found it. 
The book is called "Unexplained" by Jerome Clark (copyright 1993). Like the title says, just covers a bunch of unexplained things including paranormal, ufo's, and cryptozoology. (Got it as a gift years ago…always knew it would come in handy one day. )
It sounds like the same story that you heard about in Pennsylvania except that it took place Feb. 7-8, 1855 in Devonshire, England. It was reported by "The Times" of London on Feb 16.
To sum it up: Strange prints were found all over the place; tops of houses, narrow walls, gardens and courtyards enclosed by large walls. The print itself resembled a single cloven hoof (much like a donkey). An inch and a half across. The distance of the "step" was always 8 and a half inches. The "creature" seems to have approached the doors of several houses and then retreated. None were able to find a "resting spot" for the creature, as if it never stopped.
It was the only known report at that time, although other accounts of it could be found in letters to the editor of the "Illustrated London News." They seemed to verify what had happened in that town. Over time, experts took a shot at figuring out what made the tracks and how. None of them ever could.
And yes, this post is a bit late…but yeah, I just got here… 
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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12:36 pm
February 26, 2009
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andiamo
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| Investigator in Training | posts 15 |
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sounds like the NJ Devil. Monsterquest just had an episode about it last night. I guess a family in NJ had a similar experience but had actually seen the "creature"… they said it flew over their heads and landed on the roof of the house (there was snow on the ground), they next morning sure enough they had hoof marks on the roof. Now we know that snow melts and can make small prints appear larger than they are, even distort the prints, but it looked pretty clear to me that they were hoof prints. Of course it could have been a hoax but if that was the case it would have been quite an elaborate hoax. They even administered lie detectors to the mother and child and they both passed.
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8:10 pm
February 28, 2009
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Feneric
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Revenant said:
I knew I had heard something like this before and began poking around. And…I found it.
The book is called "Unexplained" by Jerome Clark (copyright 1993). Like the title says, just covers a bunch of unexplained things including paranormal, ufo's, and cryptozoology
. (Got it as a gift years ago…always knew it would come in handy one day. )
It sounds like the same story that you heard about in Pennsylvania except that it took place Feb. 7-8, 1855 in Devonshire, England. It was reported by "The Times" of London on Feb 16.
To sum it up: Strange prints were found all over the place; tops of houses, narrow walls, gardens and courtyards enclosed by large walls. The print itself resembled a single cloven hoof (much like a donkey). An inch and a half across. The distance of the "step" was always 8 and a half inches. The "creature" seems to have approached the doors of several houses and then retreated. None were able to find a "resting spot" for the creature, as if it never stopped.
It was the only known report at that time, although other accounts of it could be found in letters to the editor of the "Illustrated London News." They seemed to verify what had happened in that town. Over time, experts took a shot at figuring out what made the tracks and how. None of them ever could.
And yes, this post is a bit late…but yeah, I just got here…
AFAIR, the earliest descriptions of the prints (that is, the ones made with the least amount of thawing / refreezing to distort the prints) said that they were U-shaped like the hoofprints of a small donkey or pony, not like cloven hooves. Furthermore they were in a single line, as if the donkey were walking a tightrope. The cloven hoof descriptions were all made after there had been some melting.
What's most interesting to me about this story is that nothing really fits the facts. It wouldn't be easy to hoax, it doesn't fit the patterns of any known animals (although many ridiculous suggestions were made), and doesn't really even go along with superstitious devil stories (unless you happen to think the devil wanders around wearing dainty little pony shoes).
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12:48 am
March 1, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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After a bit of digging, I found a couple of links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Footprints
http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dimensions/creatures/DevilsFootprints.htm
Feneric- I believe that you are correct about the hoaxing. I failed to mention it in my original post, but these tracks covered a great deal of ground and in very odd locations. Even by today's hoaxing standards…that is a TON of work.
Overall, what jumps out at me with this story is the time frame of 1855. You have many people still hunting for their food. If you want to eat, you have to track it and kill it. So Devon and the surrounding towns are going to have a great number of skilled trackers and hunters. They would know every animal around there and what the tracks look like, melted snow or not. The fact that they couldn't is definitely intriguing.
There was a theory about an escaped Kangaroo or two, odd as that sounds. Yet, this seems like it was never actually proven true. It seems, at least on the surface, that one would have to dismiss this theory because they would have been found. You have a couple of kangaroos hopping about in the dead of winter in England with hunters on their trail…and they got away? I just can't see that.
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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2:34 pm
March 14, 2009
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alicat
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Here are two different links to the newest tracks found March 5, 2009. Interesting that both sources posted on Friday the 13th of March.
The BBC's version:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7942954.stm
and the Daily Mail's (tabloid) version:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1161765/Ancient-mystery-returns-Satans-hoofprints-spotted-Devon-garden.html
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10:01 am
March 15, 2009
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Leslie
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| Investigator | posts 157 |
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Looking at the images from March 5… Am I the only one who sees these as deer tracks??
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12:34 am
March 17, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Alicat- Thanks for the links. Pretty cool to see.
Leslie- The picture of the individual track from the BBC does indeed look like a deer. The picture in the second link of the row of tracks…not sure on that one. It doesn't look like a deer's proper gait. On the one hand, a very small deer may have been able to make such a straight path, yet, if it were a small deer, then the tracks would probably be much smaller.
I think what originally drew me to the "Devil's Footprints" story back in 1855 was that the tracks were not only upon the ground, but on walls as well as roof-tops. Very curious…
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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7:28 am
March 17, 2009
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Leslie
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| Investigator | posts 157 |
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11:24 am
March 17, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Great…just great. Now MonsterQuest is going to do a feature on those flying reindeer, find them, find Santa's village and ruin Xmas forever! Now I'll never get a camera trap for Xmas… 
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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