Pegasus flies in for a quick visit

This bizarre beast looks like it's stepped out of a Greek myth. But the extraordinary mutation of antelope and bird is actually a one-off optical illusion. The amusing picture was snapped as the animal was being chased by the tallest flying bird in the world — the Indian sarus crane.

The antelope had stumbled upon the bird's nest and had quickly been shooed away by the protective mum at Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, India. The spectacle was caught on camera by photographer Jagdeep Rajput, who said people had compared the mutation to Pegasus, a mythical winged horse.

The 49-year-old, from Delhi, added: "The crane had laid a single egg and when the bull got close she chased it away. I was hoping to get a picture of the interaction between the two animals but I never expected I'd get anything like this.

"When I show people the photograph their first reaction is that it must be photoshopped. Others say it looks like some new species of mammal or a bovine version of Pegasus." Pegasus is a mystical horse-god creature from Greek mythology.