According to a rancher in French-speaking Quebec province, a rare mating of a wild moose and a horse likely resulted in the birth of a funny-looking foal with a big head and long legs.

The foal named Bambi was born 11 weeks ago following a mysterious conception,

Although the foal is pretty gangly in the leg department, as a whole it appears pretty normal; from the neck up however you can see that it has the head of a moose (poor thing)!

The owner, Francois Larocque told Le Soleil newspaper: “When the mare gave birth, my sisters said: ‘It has a moose head.’”

Passers-by spotted more similarities to a moose in the foal: Bambi has elongated legs, likes to hang out in a nearby forest where moose typically venture, and sleeps lying down instead of upright like a horse, Larocque said.

A front-page headline in the newspaper La Presse quipped with some long thought out originality: “Is Bambi a hoose or a morse.”

Gilles Landry however, a biologist with Quebec’s parks and wildlife department, remains sceptical.

“I have serious doubts because there has never been a birth from a moose and a horse reported, even though some have mated,” he said. “It’s more likely that it’s a deformed animal.”

The rancher insists his two stallions were sterilised over a month prior to Bambi’s conception and there are no other male horses in the region, only a few moose in a nearby wildlife reserve.

Perhaps this immaculate conception could be the next big follow up to the Da Vinci code, whatever happens, veterinarians plan to carry out tests to check Bambi’s genetic profile.

Sept 1st ‘06 – updated Note from the editor: Since posting this story in July, I’ve noticed quite a few visitors coming to Newsgab thinking that the picture in this post is an actual picture of the moose / horse hybrid. At time of typing this story I couldn’t find a picture of Bambi the Morse so the pic you see in this post is a baby Moose. Nothing more, nothing less.

Even though we never said this was an actual picture of Bambi, It’s amusing to read the number of posts in forums and newsgroups analysing the angle of the nose or the distance between the eyes of the animal in this pic to prove to others that this is indeed a picture of a horse moose hybrid. So to make it clear ITS A BABY MOOSE.

Hopefully this will end the debate for many