A MOTHER goose and her gosling stopped the traffic in Bolton yesterday morning when they got lost.

The pair wandered away from their usual habitat, in Darcy Lever, and had trouble looking for a way back.

For half an hour they strayed on and off Radcliffe Road, at about 8.30am, with the gosling anxiously snuggling up to its mother throughout their ordeal.

Kindly mechanics, from Jackson's Motor Repairs, tried in vain to usher them through a gap in a fence back into the woods and the river.

Eventually mum and baby carried on towards Hacken Lane, going up and down neighbouring roads before disappearing into a back garden.

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Neil Bonnar, who was on his way to work at The Bolton News when he saw the wandering ducks, said: “The drivers were great. The geese must have stopped at least a couple of dozen cars but everyone stopped to let them cross the road and were very patient.

“They were clearly lost and the goose was trying to find a way back to where they’d strayed from. It was quite a touching scene of the mum’s protection and the gosling’s dependence on its mum. The gosling was snuggling up to its mum all the time and mum was very protective. The mechanics were great, they did their best to usher them back into the woods but the geese didn’t want to go.”

The police were informed by The Bolton News.