A bottlenose dolphin has been spotted in the river Severn near Gloucester.

The animal was seen in the river between Stonebench and Elmore Lane West.

The public are advised  to leave it alone as they are confident it will find it's way to safety.

Bottlenose dolphins live in groups typically of 10–30 members, called pods, but group size varies from single individuals up to more than 1,000.

Their diets consist mainly of forage fish. Dolphins often work as a team to harvest fish schools, but they also hunt individually. Dolphins search for prey primarily using echolocation, which is similar to sonar.

They emit clicking sounds and listen for the return echos to determine the location and shape of nearby items, including potential prey.

Bottlenose dolphins also use sound for communication, including squeaks and whistles emitted from the blowhole and sounds emitted through body language, such as leaping from the water and slapping their tails on the water surface.