A mother goose had to be rescued after getting her feet tangled in fishing wire.

Elena, who was named by the team at Dartford Animal Rescue Team, was first spotted in difficulty at Brooklands Lake in Princes Road, Dartford last month.

But it took three weeks for the team to gain the trust of the protective Egyptian goose to be able to help her.

Earlier this month the mission was completed when swan rescuer Danni Rogers jumped into the icy cold water and brought the bird to land.

Ciara O’Hare, who founded the volunteer group more than two years ago, said she was attending daily with her team attempting to build up trust with the goose who had been frightened by well-meaning members of the public.

She said: “Elena has two small babies and a loving partner which put her on very high alert.

“As she’s the only bird on the lake with babies at the moment and lots of people walk around this lake, she was spotted and approached by many people and she was on guard from day one as a result.

“Many well-meaning people tried to catch her but without the experience required the result was just her becoming very, very scared and even harder for us at the Dartford Animal Rescue Team to help.

“After days of efforts to gain her trust we could see she wasn’t going to allow us to get close enough to catch by hand, a method we’ve used on hundreds of similar cases in the past.”

Instead Ciara said they were able to get close using the help of Danni Rogers and his swan ambulance full of kit.

However, at the first attempt the equipment failed and the mission had to be aborted.

Joined by fellow volunteers Rosie Rosie O’Hare and Calum Laws and Andy the team tried again.

Ciara said: “It was a success. Danni jumped in the water after Elena and swum her back to the bank were Rosie and Andy helped them out of the water.

“They then began the mission of cleaning her wounds after untangling her feet, which were tied together with tight fishing line.”

Elena is expected to make a full recovery.

Ciara added: “Seeing her move freely and regain her confidence has been so emotional for us all.”