A reindeer who was being bullied by his herd thanks to a lack of testosterone - due to an eye-watering medical problem - has had pioneering keyhole surgery thanks to a Kent company.

Eskimo, who lives at Edinburgh Zoo, may be the first reindeer ever to undergo the surgery.

One of Eskimo's testicles had become lodged in his abdomen at birth, leading to problems with his flow of testosterone, which made him submissive and led to the other reindeer bullying him.

Leading vet Romain Pizzi successfully removed the testicle, using specialist surgical instruments donated to the zoo by a partner of Edenbridge-based Ark Surgical.

Gavin O'Brien, director at Ark Surgical said: "We were only too happy to help when Romain mentioned the challenging operation faced by Eskimo and in the season of goodwill we approached Surgical Innovations who kindly donated the instruments for this pioneering surgery."

Although keyhole (or laparoscopic surgery as its also known) is routine in humans, the standard procedure in animals is still open abdominal surgery.

Mr Pizzi said: "Laparosopic surgery is still very uncommon in veterinary medicine, even amongst common species such as dogs, cats and horses, so for keyhole surgery to be carried out on a reindeer shows a great advancement in veterinary surgery."

Eskimo recovered quickly and was standing, happily munching on lichen again within 10 minutes after coming round from the anaesthetic.