An entire stretch of the M25 was shut as a dramatic operation took place to rescue a stricken Canada goose, in the latest example of animals going wild in Surrey.

Leatherhead-based charity Wildlife Aid (WAF) received a call from the Highways Agency last Wednesday (October 15), saying it had been alerted by motorists that a large bird was wandering around dazed and confused on the hard shoulder of the anticlockwise carriageway between junctions 9 and 8, for Leatherhead and Reigate.

Two volunteers, one of them a vet, were dispatched to the scene, where they realised there was a risk that trying to catch the distressed animal might scare it out onto the motorway with potentially disastrous results.

At around 3pm, the decision was made to put a rolling roadblock in place, and local vet Cristina Flamini and volunteer rescuer Ron Turner - known at Wildlife Aid as 'Quiet Ron' - set to work.