有观点认为这是一场集体歇斯底里(Mass hysteria),人们将各种不同的动物足迹混为一谈并当作了神秘事件。 It is also often suggested that the footprints were merely a case of mass hysteria , caused by the sighting of various animal tracks and lumping them together as one. 附注:维基百科自2007年4月就开始请求此说法来源。
作家基弗雷·浩斯霍德(Geoffrey Household)曾提出过一个解释,他认为这是一个飘走的实验气球( an experimental balloon)。 Author Geoffrey Household suggested that "an experimental balloon" released by mistake from Devonport Dockyard had left the mysterious tracks by trailing two shackles on the end of its mooring ropes. His source was a local man, Major Carter, whose grandfather had worked at Devonport at the time. Carter claimed that the incident had been hushed up because the balloon also wrecked a number of conservatories , greenhouses, and windows before finally descending to earth in Honiton . While this could explain the shape of the prints, sceptics have disagreed about whether the balloon could have travelled such a random zigzag course without its trailing ropes and shackles becoming caught in a tree or similar obstruction.(此段落维基百科来源请求于2017年2月)