A nature expert made a gruesome discovery as he walked along a Kent beach - the washed-up body of a huge wild boar.

Owen Leyshon chanced upon the carcass as he walked along the foreshore of the Lydd MoD Ranges on Romney Marsh.

He believes the creature was washed up on the tideline near the firing ranges after probably having been washed down the River Rother and then out to sea from the wooded Weald, which is their stronghold in the South East.

Mr Leyshon, who works for the Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership, said: "It was a surprise. It was showing its massive tusks and long shaggy dark hairy coat. It was an impressive beast.

"The Romney Marsh has a small number of records of wild boar sightings each year, particularly to the west out from Appledore, where the animals cross the Royal Military Canal by trotting down the Ashford to Hastings railway line and also up by Aldington as well.

"Wild boar in the Weald, across the Sussex and Kent border, have been a familiar scene since the mid 1980s and the numbers have fluctuated in that time. I have been fortunate to see them in woodland north of Rye in the past on a spring evening. Wild boar are very wary and shy animals and tend to be nocturnal.

"They are quite impressive animals with the weight of a male wild boar up to around 175kg and being a metre high on the shoulder."