Trail Camera Captures a ‘Mythical Creature’ in Bristol—What Is It?

A night-vision trail camera captured a photo of a “winged and horned” creature that doesn’t make much sense at the U.K.’s Bristol Zoo. Officials say the keepers are “baffled” by the images of what appears to be a mythical creature. The animal is living in the Bristol Zoo’s 7.5-acre Bear Wood habitat, where multiple species live together in an “ancient woodland,” including bears, wolves, wolverines, and lynx. They didn’t realize they had tiny unicorns there, too.

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“Our UK Conservation team made the discovery when looking through images from camera traps,” Bristol Zoo says in a statement. “After reviewing the images they say the creature appears to have four legs and is like nothing they have spotted before.”

The statement also says the cameras have picked up this mysterious creature “on several occasions,” but that it’s “impossible to identify.”

Realists suggest the animal is a muntjac deer, and the anomalies come from a trick of light from the night-vision camera. Romanticists make many suggestions, including that the animal is a peryton, a mythological animal combining the physical features of a stag and a bird.

See Bristol Zoo’s “mythical creature,” alongside a known creature (a muntjac deer) here:

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