More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Steven Spielberg set his scary Jurassic Park movie on the remote island of Isla Nublar somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica.
But if he had wanted a slightly cheaper location where extinct dinosaurs still roamed the earth he could have picked the sun-kissed Isle of Sheppey.
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At the latest count there were four, possibly five Tyrannosaurus Rex checking out the north Kent island.
Videos and photos of their exploits can be viewed on a new Facebook page called Dinosaur Island.
It is the brainchild of mum-of-three and gran-of-two Maria Shepherd from Chalk Road, Queenborough. In the month since she launched it she has snapped up more than 500 followers and they are growing.
She said: "It has really taken off and caught me a little bit by surprise. I just wanted to put a smile on people's faces during the coronavirus lockdowns."
Her close encounter of the prehistoric kind began two years ago when her sister bought her a surprise dinosaur costume to celebrate her 40th birthday. Since then she has worked her way through a number of different dinosaurs.
She said: "One of my first outings was to the Sheerness carnival but I only made it a few hundred yards before the electric motor, which inflates the costume, burned out. I also entered the Queenborough lantern parade but the torches burned holes in the costume."
During the last snowfall she retrieved the costume from her attic and went out gritting an ice-up footpath. She said: "Within a couple of minutes I was surrounded by children and one bus driver wound down his window and asked for a photo."
A video of her clearing the snow also ended up on the ITV news.
Most recently she has been joined by other dinosaurs which have raided play parks and clambered on swings much to the delight of youngsters. They have also started hunting in packs - for litter.
Maria, who is currently furloughed from working at Dreams bedding store in Sittingbourne, said: "We had a very successful litter-pick at Queenborough last weekend thanks to equipment supplied by Swale council and today (Saturday) we plan to tackle The Glen public park in Minster at noon."
Most of the costumes come from Amazon and cost around £35. Maria, who is 5ft 3in tall, admitted: "I've had to try a few. Some have the viewing grill at the wrong height for me."
And she added: "I've had to tell a few children off for playing with my tail. It hurts quite a bit when you are inside the costume."
But whatever the problems, the whole effect is roar-some as she and her friends try to stop the Island from being an eye-saurus!
Video: Dino-gran Maria Shepherd cleans up Queenborough play park
