Robert F Kennedy Jr says he left dead bear in Central Park after decade long mystery

Robert F Kennedy Jr has claimed he left a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park as a prank nearly a decade ago.

When city authorities first found the bear in October 2014 it sparked international news interest, as people speculated around the circumstances that led to the bear's appearance.

Speaking in a video posted on social media on Sunday, Kennedy, the son of Robert F Kennedy and nephew of president John F Kennedy, said he was recounting the story to get ahead of a New Yorker article - which he expects to be damaging - on the topic.

The independent US presidential candidate said he was heading to a falconry excursion with friends when a woman driving ahead of him hit and killed the young bear with her vehicle.

He says he put it in his own vehicle, intending to skin it and eat the meat, but the day got away from him.

Eventually, he says, he was in Manhattan and needed to get the bear carcass out of his vehicle.

His friends, fueled by alcohol, concocted the Central Park plan as a prank, he said, adding he was not drunk himself.

At the time, bicycle accidents were getting significant media attention, so Kennedy and his friends thought it would be funny to make it look like the bear was hit by a bicycle.

Two women walking their dogs found the dead bear and alerted authorities, triggering a mystery that captivated the city for a few days.

Kennedy said the bear’s discovery appeared on “the front page of every paper”, drawing widespread media coverage and prompting investigations from law enforcement.

Bears are not among the park’s known wildlife population.

The bike was analysed for DNA prints and the animal sent for a autopsy, which determined the bear was likely hit by a vehicle and was not a victim of animal cruelty.

But how the bear ended up in Central Park remained a mystery.

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“I was worried because my prints were all over that bike,” Kennedy said.

He added: "Luckily, the story died down after a while and it stayed dead for a decade. The New Yorker somehow found out about it, and they just - they’re gonna do a big article on me. So they asked me, the fact-checkers."

The development is the latest bizarre incident in Kennedy’s campaign, which has divided his famous family and left Republicans and Democrats alike concerned about his potential impact on the presidential contest.

Kennedy has previously acknowledged a parasite that lodged in his brain and died.

He also denied eating a dog after a friend shared a photo with Vanity Fair magazine showing Kennedy preparing to take a bite of a charred animal.

Kennedy said the animal in the photo was a goat.

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