Detection dog helps sniff out great crested newts

They may be more accustomed to helping police catch criminals - but this dog has joined the fight to save rare creatures.

Rocky is a real-life "Sherlock Bones" who surveys development sites for the great crested newt.

The once unwanted spaniel, based in Flintshire, helps identify locations where the newts are living before construction work begins.

It has taken canine training specialists Wagtail UK four years of "research and painstaking trial and error" to perfect the techniques required.

Colin Singer, from Wagtail, said: "This work highlights the innovative manner in which dogs can be used in conservation and to assist with ecological surveys."