The RSPCA has appealed to local people not to pick up apparently abandoned young foxes, rabbits, badgers and hedgehogs.

The society is inundated each year with young animals that have been removed from their natural habitat by well-meaning members of the public who thought they had been abandoned.

The RSPCA advises people to leave the animals alone as the mother is probably close by and waiting until the humans have gone before reclaiming her baby.