One Ipswich resident awoke to a strange visitor when a skunk appeared at their home this week.

The animal was spotted in a garden and it made for a "very odd request" for a national wildlife solutions business.

However, it wasn't long before the skunk could be returned to its home.

Kevin Newell, of Humane Wildlife Solutions, said: "It was quite the operation.

"I got a message from someone saying they've got a skunk in their garden.

"I have done skunk consultancy work in America, but nothing in Ipswich.

"So, I replied to the person saying 'it's most likely to be a badger if it's black and white and in your garden'.

"I said 'just to be sure, could you send me a photo over' and the next morning, right enough, the image I put on Facebook was of a skunk in someone's garden."

Kevin Newell is based in Scotland but grew up in Harwich and regularly attended Ipswich Town football matches.

He set up Humane Wildlife Solutions in 2012 to offer the "most effective form of non-lethal pest control for all wildlife, with minimal stress and maximum respect" across the UK.

Mr Newell continued: "I'm coming from a wildlife rescue background and I realised that this skunk obviously needs help because it's in a situation where it shouldn't be out in the wild in Ipswich and it was not far from the town centre.

"I started putting calls out to people I know down that way to see if we could arrange for someone to come and try and help catch the skunk because we needed to make sure they were not in harm's way."

With the help of Suffolk and Essex Hunt Sabs and Feline Care Cat Rescue, an approach was coordinated and the skunk was captured.

The operation was carried out using humane traps and the animal fortunately did not utilise its defence mechanism.

Kevin Newell added: "Just by complete chance, the owners, who I believe live quite local, happened to be passing and were like 'oh, that's our skunk'.

"We had to verify ownership and they even showed photos of the family with their skunk - which is named Piper.

"So not only do we do manage to get people to help the skunk, but we were able to make sure that the skunk ended up back at its home which was absolutely the best result, really."