FORMER African game warden Wayne Beardmore believes a big cat was responsible for killing a deer he found near Ashton Keynes.

He says the similarities between the deer he found at the roadside between Ashton Keynes and Wootton Bassett and the carcasses he saw when he worked as a game warden in Kenya are too great to be a coincidence.

"I have seen many kills and the way it has been killed is too similar," he said. "It is not likely a fox could have done that damage."

His opinion has added weight to speculation about the so-called Minety Monster, a big cat which is believed to have killed sheep in the area.

Mr Beardmore, 28, of Charlton, will now offer his services to the police if any further carcasses are found.

"I know what these cats can do and I know how clever they are. They are highly intelligent animals," he said.

The carcass of the muntjak deer was found on Monday. It would have been the size of a greyhound.

It had been stripped except for the head, and the ears had been chewed a trademark of a leopard or lion kill.

Mr Beardmore, who worked as a game warden in Kenya for six months and then as a guide between 1991 and 1998, believes a big cat could easily survive in the wild around Minety, living off pheasants and the occasional sheep or deer.

In February, 22 sheep were savaged on farms in the Minety area in one week. And in March, there were four reports of a big cat the size of an Alsatian dog in the Minety area.