SCIENTISTS from Woolsery have arrived in Texas in search of a hairless blue dog.

Jonathan Downes, 50, and his wife Corinna, 53, from the Woolsery based Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are researching sightings of the creature.

The scientists at the CFZ, the world's largest mystery animal research centre, are no strangers to looking for unusual creatures.

In the past they've gone across the world on the look out of weird animals such as yeti-like creatures; giant snakes; the Didi, a beast armed with scythe-like claws; and the Water Tiger, an aggressive aquatic animal.

Jonathan explained the earliest animal recognisable as the ancestor of modern dogs, foxes and wolves evolved in southern Texas about 40 million years ago.

He believes now, in the early 21st Century, there are strange new dogs around in the Lone Star State.

Jonathan initially started researching the blue and hairless dog in November 2004.

He said other zoologists had dismissed accounts of the dogs as mangy coyotes — but he was not happy with that explanation.

He said: "Every veterinary expert whom we consulted said if an animal was as riddled with mange to be completely hairless, then it would be so ill as to hardly be able to walk — let alone run around and attack chickens.

"The Texas blue dogs are clearly members of the dog family, but they are something that deserves a proper scientific investigation."