With its thousands of acres of countryside and miles of coastline, Kent has a range of attractive habitats for members of the animal kingdom.

And while it provides a permanent home for millions of creatures, some simply pop up from time to time and leave their mark.

And when the more exotic animals visit the county, we like to claim them as our own, even naming them.

Here we look at some of Kent's most famous and beloved animal visitors from over the years, and some of its more well-known creatures who call Kent home.

Dave the Dolphin

Despite being called Dave, the dolphin that lived off the coast between Folkestone and Hythe for 18 months was female.

She first appeared in April 2006 after making a home at a rock groyne in Seabrook and would regularly entertain crowds with her ducking and diving.

She wasn't afraid of boats and would swim up to them when her instincts shouldn have told her to stay away.

At times she would disappear - even being spotted at Camber and Bexhill - but would still return to Kent. At one point it was thought Dave was becoming so used to humans that she would start displaying her dominance and would therefore pose a threat.

But in October 2007, Dave suffered a serious tail injury thought to have beeen inflicted by a boat propellor.

She was given antibiotics and was said to be responding well to treatment but the popular mammal was last seen in November 2007.

In 2008, two men were found guilty of disturbing Dave the Dolphin, in the first case of its kind to be heard in the UK.

They were charged with intentionally or recklessly disturbing a wild dolphin after getting in the water at Seabrook in June 2007 in the early hours of the morning following an all-night party. They were seen swimming with the creature and putting their arms around its neck.

Residents called police after being disturbed by the men’s noise and officers said the men refused to get out of the water when they were told it was illegal to swim with the dolphin.

Following a six-day trial at Dover Magistrates' Court, in which five experts spoke, the two men were found guilty and were ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work in the community and to each pay £350 towards the court costs.

Benny the Beluga

Benny the Beluga whale was in Kent waters for six months in 2018, mainly in the Thames in Gravesend where he was seen in September of that year.

But the first sighting had been that July in the River Medway.

A string of sightings were reported over the following months, with his presence causing a quite a stir.

Many visitors would come to see him with their cameras in the hope of snapping a picture and some traders began marketing Beluga-themed merchandise.

At one point he was joined by two porpoises who kept him company.

Gravesham Borough Council even launched a #KeepBennySafe campaign and postponed an annual fireworks display to protect him.

But those sightings diminished over the winter, with experts speculating that Benny had travelled out to sea on the trail of migratory fish, and the last confirmed sighting of the whale was in December 2018, further downstream from Gravesend.

Benny's memory lived on and even inspired artwork when Amy West created a life-size sculpture of the animal using washed up litter to raise awareness of plastic waste.

Hessy the Humpback

Dubbed Hessy the Humpback, the 27ft mammal surfaced in the Thames Estuary near Dartford in October last year.

Delighted spectators watched as the whale dived and resurfaced, and moved along the river with the outgoing tide, seemingly unbothered by the passing vessels.

It was thought the young humpback probably followed prey into the area and had then gone off-course.

Humpbacks are more commonly sighted off the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland and it is rare to see them appear in the Thames.

But just a day later, the poor thing was found dead, floating near Greenhithe.

The next day a team from the Port of London Authority managed to get a rope around the creature and lift it from the water at Denton Wharf in Gravesend. A large wound indicative of a ship strike was found on its body.

A post mortem was carried out by a team from the Zoological Society of London's Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme and they concluded the whale was struck by a ship, which was the likely cause of death.

As well as finding a large would on the underside of her head, they discovered she had a fractured jaw.

Internal investigations revealed Hessy was 'nutritionally compromised' but had no evidence of plastic ingestion.

They found previous 'interactions with humans' had left the mammal with scars on the dorsal fin and tail.

Harold the Griffon Vulture

While not a wild animal, Harold - thought to be a male bird for 20 years - hit headlines in 2018 after staff at the sanctuary he lives in revealed he had laid an egg.

Colleagues at Eagle Heights in Eynsford, near Dartford, were left "flabbergasted" after the discovery of the egg.

A post on their social media said: "Twenty years ago we bought HAROLD our MALE Griffon Vulture only to find this morning that he is actually a SHE and has laid her first ever egg!"

The unlikely discovery was questioned by some followers of the sanctuary, who suggested wildlife experts should have been capable of identifying Harold's gender and wondered why he hadn't laid an egg previously.

But staff insisted it was no joke, explaining: "Twenty-odd years ago when we got Harold he had paperwork telling us he was a male.

"So we took their word for it, as sexing a bird can be rather stressful, as you have to take blood or pull out a blood feather and get a DNA test done.

"Males and females look exactly the same, so unless you have DNA there is no way of telling, especially in vultures."

"Now she's been given a big aviary she clearly thought the time was right!"

And sanctuary staff also had an explanation as to why Harold hadn't laid an egg previously, adding: "In the wild they start to breed as soon as they reach maturity because their survival rate is so low, so they start as soon as possible in an attempt to increase population.

"In captivity it's a bit older at around 10 years old on average. So Harold is still a bit older, but up until recently she has been tethered in our main mews (clipped to a perch) which obviously is not suitable for nesting. Now she's been given a big aviary she clearly thought the time was right!"

The bird kept the name Harold.

Blanche, Gulliver, Prince and Victor

The adventures of peacocks Blanche, Gulliver, Prince and Victor have been bringing joy to households in Deal for some time.

The birds belong to Paul Louis who lives in Hull Place, Sholden, where they return every night, but during the day they are free to roam around.

In April, they were spotted breaking lockdown rules when they wandered into Campbells' car garage and explored the office and took a rest on the MOT ramp.

Owner Mr Louis told KentOnline last November: "I decided not to clip their wings as this limits their ability to escape to trees, mainly from foxes.

"Clipping them makes them vulnerable and whilst they do have a very secure pen, I would rather not let them be cooped up.

"As I understand it they haven't been a nuisance and bringing joy to people which makes me very happy. The white one is called Blanche, the others Gulliver, Prince and Victor.

"The peacocks were here all night and kept me and the neighbours up with their shouting and banging on the roof, but I didn’t mind too much."

"I hope they continue to bring joy. They are very tame and non aggressive."

A few weeks after the garage incident, police were called to Middle Deal Road in Deal after concerns the colourful creatures were blocking the road.

The road was cleared and the birds stayed in the area overnight, to the delight of the residents.

One said: "The peacocks were here all night and kept me and the neighbours up with their shouting and banging on the roof, but I didn’t mind too much.

"They were still outside the house at 9am this morning and my daughter Lottie loved seeing them up close whilst another neighbour fed one of them grapes."

Sammy the Asda Cat

Black cat Sammy became a local celebrity by hanging out at Asda supermarket in Ashford and even had her own Facebook page.

She had an owner and a home but was often seen by shoppers wandering around the grounds of the shop, or the nearby designer outlet.

In 2018, a campaign was launched after she went missing for a month - and was later found 30 miles away on an industrial estate in Gillingham.

Sadly, last year, Sammy was killed following a dog attack at the supermarket. Her owner Joanne Henderson said at the time: "Everyone is devastated. Thank you so much for everything the Asda staff have done and for looking out for her all the time. She loved all of you."

Sammy was not the first cat to take a shine to Ashford's Asda - a pet named Daisy was often seen at the shop in 2013.

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Escaped animals, unusual finds and news from the RSPCA can all be found here