This is the moment a young bullock got his head stuck inside a hollow tree while searching for food, prompting a two-hour rescue mission. The cow was found tightly wedged inside the tree by a visitor to National Trust property Trelissick House in Truro, Cornwall, where it had been grazing.

Staff at the country house, were quickly alerted but it took two hours of removing branches and chiselling away at the sycamore tree for the bullock to finally be freed.

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This is the moment a young bullock got his head stuck inside a hollow tree while searching for food in the grounds of National Trust property Trelissick House in Truro, Cornwall, prompting a two-hour rescue mission

Employee Craig Hardman said he was told about the cow by a visitor to the site, and had at first thought it was a joke.

However, when he arrived at the tree he was shocked to see the back-end of the bullock sticking out of the trunk.

The 38-year-old visitor services assistant from Bolton, said: ‘I was alerted by a member of the public who was walking his dog, after they spotted the cow in the car park.

‘I thought it was a strange report, but I went over to have a look anyway.

‘As I was walking down through the field I saw a member of the public next to a tree, and sure enough, a cow had its head stuck in there. ‘It was a bullock, and his head was firmly lodged in the tree. ‘It took us over an hour to get him out, we have to remove a lower branch and chiselled around the opening.

‘One of his ears was visible but the other was stuck, so we had to chisel the other ear out. ‘The bullock wasn’t distressed though, he was fine. Mr Hardman said that the rescue mission had not put other cows off visiting the tree, and getting stuck themselves.

‘We don’t know why he put his head in there, but another cow has been back to the same spot so there must be some nutrient in there that they like,’ he said. ‘The second cow also got stuck but was freed easily as we had already widened the hole the first time around.’ The National Trust has now fenced off the tree to stop the cattle, who belong to a local farmer and graze on the estate, doing it again.

Mr Hardman added: ‘We don’t know why the cows did it. We’ve looked at the hole and there is nothing of any interest in there. ‘We just think there were some insects in there that attracted them. Maybe they just wanted some alone time. ‘We don’t know how long they had been stuck in there when they were spotted.

‘We’ve had two different cows get their heads stuck in the same hole four days apart. To my knowledge it has never happened before.

‘It is a bit of a weird one.’