Brown trout (Salmo trutta) farmed for food in a pond in Alresford, Hampshire have been photographed making a daring escape by leaping up the water flow from a metal feed pipe situated about one metre above the water surface.
The photographs were taken by wildlife photographer Dennis Bright earlier this week.
After leaping up into the 20 cm-wide pipe, the fish swam against the current for about 10 m (the length of the pipe) before emerging into a tributary of the River Itchen.
The trout are most likely not consciously making an effort to escape from the pond, but merely following their instinct to head upstream this time of the year to spawn.
David Bassett, of the British Trout Association, told the Daily Telegraph: They will be thinking that water falling from the pipe is a waterfall leading upstream. Then they will follow their natural life cycle to get upstream.
An unhappy fate awaits the intrepid trout, however.
Dennis Bright told the Daily Telegraph: They are jumping for freedom in large volumes but sadly I think their fate will be less than happy - there are otter, herons and many other predators feeding from the stream.