A GOOSE which has lost the lower half of its beak is being looked after by a York wildlife centre.

The Canadian Goose - which was rescued from Wilton Park, Batley, and has since been nicknamed Wilton - may have a prosthetic bill fitted, depending on how it copes in coming weeks.

Dan Sidley runs the Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital at Brandsby near York, where Wilton - who now has his own Facebook page - is being cared for.

He said: "It's certainly one of the worst injuries we have dealt with.

"The massive concern is the bird would be unable to eat and would effectively starve to death. Something had to be done."

Dan said it was uncertain whether a prosthetic bill would be fitted, and while Wilton was being monitored by vets, he was already showing good progress.

He said: "He's managing to eat what we're giving him and the condition of his feathers overall is good. I'm quite pleased about that. He's managed to preen himself and keep himself clean too, which is great.

"Long term the next couple of weeks will determine whether we have to fit a new beak or not. We have never done that before, but I have seen it done in the past and I've seen out own vets do it on other animals before, but we don't want to put an animal through that if it can cope without it."

Anyone with information on how the goose was injured should phone the RSPCA on 0300 1234999.