4 weeks ago
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A mysterious creature caught on camera at Bristol Zoo Project's Bear Wood habitat is not a deer, say experts who continue to be baffled by what exactly it is.
The zoo's conservation team came across something they said they'd never seen before when looking at images taken from camera traps set up in the space where bears, wolves, wolverines and lynx all live.
A Redditor in the Bristol Subreddit seemed to have cracked the case, saying the mysterious creature was a muntjac deer.
But in a Facebook post, Bristol Zoo Project posted an image of a muntjac deer alongside the mysterious "winged and horned" creature captured on camera and implied it's not that.
The post said: "Here you can see a familiar muntjac deer alongside a creature that has us just a little stumped..."
When reviewing the images, experts said the creature appears to have four legs, is not like anything they've seen before and has been impossible to identify.
It's been spotted on camera several times.
It comes after staff had reported something unusual lurking between the trees in the habitat which was also catching the attention of the animals.
Rosie Sims, public engagement manager at Bristol Zoo Project, said: "The sighting of this mythical-like creature is a mystery to us here at Bristol Zoo Project and has been a great inspiration for the Halloween trail this year.
"Scotland has the Loch Ness monster and Cornwall has the Beast of Bodmin Moor – have we discovered a similar mythical here in Bristol perhaps?"
Camera traps are used by Bristol Zoological Society’s conservation team to monitor species that live in the Bear Wood's 7.5 acre ancient woodland habitat.
Bristol Zoo Project's Halloween trail called Howl-oween: Myths and Legends starts on Friday (25 October).
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