Unknown Creature – Lytham St Anne’s.

Over several weeks in the spring of 2005, more than 20 people reported seeing a strange animal in the thick woodland of Green Drive, a beauty spot near Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire. Sandra Sturrock encountered the creature around 11pm on the 28th of April while walking her dog. ” I caught sight of something large – collie size, I thought – light coloured, with sticking up ears,” she said. ” It was sitting high on one of the dunes, watching me and my dog. I stood still for several minutes, trying to adjust my eyes to see it more clearly…… I called my dog and put him on the lead and slowly inched towards the animal to get a better look, but it ran off. I climbed up the dune to where it had been and my dog went mad, sniffing all around the area.”

Willie Davidson, 59, a painter and decorator, said: ” I was playing bowls near Green Drive when I heard a snarl behind me. It was like a monster out of Dr Who and it needs tracking down.” An unnamed woman said: “I was walking along the drive when I saw it in the fields alongside. I have no idea what it was. I could tell it was the size of a labrador, but it looked more like a hare. It can’t of been either – it was surreal.” Other characteristics mentioned by witnesses were a large mouth and a lolloping gait.

“We have checked local zoos and farms, but nothing seems to be missing,” said a spokesman for Lancashire police. “It is very bizarre. We have handed it over to the RSPCA to investigate.” A spokesman for Beastwatch UK suggested it could be a wallaby or an escapee from Southport Zoo, which had closed some years ago. Others suggest it was a muntjac deer, one of the last remaining from a herd brought to Lytham Hall by the local Squire in the 19th century. Experts at Chester Zoo after examining a drawing of the creature by artist Sam Shearon, claimed, “It doesn’t look like any animal currently alive.