Prince William asked a scientist if she could find the Loch Ness Monster

According to the Telegraph, he asked: "Everyone will want to know. Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?"

The scientist admitted efforts had been made but only eels had been found in the loch.

She said: "People have tried. People came from New Zealand to try that and they took about 500 eDNA samples and no, they said they had found eels.

"It might be a very big eel, but it felt like it was clutching at straws a little bit. All they needed to find was one unidentified piece of eDNA and they could have had a story."

Dr. Bruce admitted the firm - which was a finalist in William's Earthshot Prize initiative last year - had been asked to use their technology to find "all sorts", including Bigfoot and the Yeti.

William - who has three children with wife Catherine, Princess of Wales - hailed the visit to the company in Guildford, Surrey, the "best day of [his] life" after he got to spray cloudy pond water at a group of journalists in attendance.

He had joined a group of schoolchildren who were collecting DNA samples to identify the bacteria and wildlife present in a nearby lake and, when he had to expel some excess water from his syringe, Dr. Bruce suggested he fire it in the direction of reporters.

He took three attempts and quipped: "Oh nearly, so nearly... This is the best day of my life - great fun."

The Prince of Wales praised the company's work as he was shown a DNA extraction machine, which produces the code sequence to identify a vast range from bacteria to blue whales.

He told chief ex ecutive Dimple Patel: "So much of what the environmental world needs right now is data.

"And you guys have got the ability to tell us what's there. There's a lot of guesswork, there's a lot of painstaking volunteers and science going into this, but actually what we need is to be able to understand bigger, large-scale projects as to what is in each area."