London animal rescues 2022: Wackiest RSPCA tales - from a tarantula on a train to a sugar glider in a bedroom

The RSPCA has revealed the wackiest animal rescues of 2022 in the capital - which include a tarantula on a train, a badger in a drain and a sugar glider which flew into a bedroom.

Hilarious pictures show hapless pets and wild animals trapped in bizarre places before being freed by baffled rescuers.

The charity has compiled 59 of the oddest rescues of 2022, with another one of the weirdest being a starving seal pup that slithered into a Bristol pub.

And throughout the year, the RSPCA has received nearly 300,000 reports of trapped animals - one of the charity’s busiest ever years - including several in London.

Quirky animal rescues

A badger needed a helping hand after falling into an uncovered drain in Richmond, London.

Meanwhile in the city, commuters were shocked to find a tarantula on a train arriving into London Bridge train station on January 7.

Another stunned Londoner also had a fright when a sugar glider flew into his bedroom and woke him up.

John Zou, 27, was asleep when he heard something scampering around his bedroom in his sixth-floor flat in Holborn at 5am on January 10.

Foxes

Foxes were frequently rescued in London in 2022.

A not-so-cunning fox found himself in a spot of bother after he slipped over garden furniture and got his leg stuck between the slats in Ealing, West London, on January 3.

B&Q staff raised the alarm after they found a fox curled up asleep on a doormat in the Peckham store in London on January 22.

Rescuer Chloe Wilson attended to help: “He looked very cute all curled up on a doormat down one of the shopping aisles.”

The animal charity was called out in London on February 2 after a fox managed to get a tin of dog food stuck on its head in the appropriately-named suburb of Barking.

RSPCA rescuers and firefighters came to the aid of a fox who got its head and leg stuck through the metal base of a chair in a Streatham garden in south London on March 3.

RSPCA Inspector Lynn Serrano said: “We’re not sure how it happened but the wicker chair was upside down and the fox had his head and leg stuck through the metal pieces at the base of the chair and the top of the chair legs.”

A fox cub needed rescuing after getting his head wedged in a car wheel after sneaking into a shed in Orpington, London.

Another fox got his head stuck in a discarded plastic bottle when passersby spotted the animal in distress in Willesden, London.

A silly fox ended up in a fix when he got his head stuck in a tiny gap between two walls in Acton, London.

And a fox decided to move into a vacant flat that was on the market and made herself at home in the loft of the property in Battersea, London.