This is the moment a kayaker rescued a drowning squirrel.

Tom Wildblood, 43, was taking customers on guided kayak tours when he came across what he thought was a stick.

But as he got closer he saw that the stick began to move and he soon realised it was a squirrel on the verge of death.

He picked the animal up from the Helford River, near Falmouth, with his paddle and dropped it in the kayak for safety.

Brave Tom put the nut-loving creature in his lap.

Tom said: "I was out with two customers when I came across the squirrel.

''I had been telling them all about the history of the area and keeping them safe.

"It was in the middle of the Helford, it looked like it had dropped of a tree on the Lizard side so it must have swam a good 30 or 40 metres.

"It was nearly dead when I found it, I picked it up and put it between my legs and it clung on for dear life."

Tom said this wasn't the first rescue of this kind that he had performed, just last year he rescued a badger from the base of a cliff near St Agnes.

He continued: "I took the squirrel to the nearest beach and set it down but it just sat there frozen.

"I decided to put it in the most natural place for a squirrel – a tree – but it was still just frozen.

"It must have been in shock, because after about 15 minutes it shook itself off and ran up the tree.

"We love all wildlife, whether it's marine or woodland critters, and will always stop to help an animal in distress."