(Original headline: IN SEARCH OF THE KILLER WORM )
An Exeter monster-hunter has just returned from an expedition to track down a bizarre and deadly creature said to live in the Mongolian desert.
Richard Freeman, 35, a zoologist who lives in Exwick, travelled 1,000 miles over the Gobi Desert in the quest to find so-called Deathworm.
He and his team were unable to trace the creature, said to be 2ft long and able to spit poison, but spoke to people who said they had seen it.
The expedition was run by the Exeter-based Centre for Fortean Zoology, an organisation dedicated to cryptozoology, or the study of unusual animals, of which Richard is the zoological director.
Other members of the month-long Operation Deathworm were Surrey computer programmer Dr Chris Clark, 59; London science journalist Jon Hare, 30; and David Churchill, a 32-year-old former web designer who is also from London.
Richard said that he and his fellow travellers managed to speak to a number of people who claimed to have seen the creature.
He said "We interviewed dozens of witnesses. All the reports were consistent; a 2ft long, reddish brown, salami-shaped creature covered in scales.
"Most of the witnesses were scared of the creature because it was said to spit deadly poison."
The first recorded sightings of the Deathworm, which is in fact believed to be a reptile, were in the 1920s.
Nobody has ever photographed the creature, which has only been reported in the more remote areas of the Gobi Desert.
On the journey, the team also heard of reported sightings of a 6ft long, long-horned snake and a number of reports of dragons.
One respected doctor from Ulan Bator, the nation's capital, saw what he described as a Chinese dragon coiled in a well in the remote desert town of Bulgan last year.
The team has been on numerous quests hunting for unusual and even potentially paranormal creatures since 2000.
These include a hunt for the creature of Loch Morar, which Richard believes to be a 30ft eel, and a trip to Thailand in an attempt to hunt down a 60ft snake.
