Displaying touching motherly love, a cow ran behind a pickup truck which carried her calf to a hospital.

The cow ran behind the truck for almost a kilometre and stayed put before the veterinary hospital, which treated the calf, for three days.

The incident took place at Haveri in South Indian State of Karnataka on January 25.

The two-and-a-half-months-old calf had suffered an injury which later got infected. A few onlookers decided to shift it to a veterinary hospital and brought in a pickup truck.

They were not expecting the cow to follow them all the way to the hospital.

H D Sunnaki, the chief veterinarian of Haveri, said: "The calf recovered fully and we discharged it on January 28th. It had developed tetanus."

The cow and her calf have been united and a local animal welfare organisation has stepped forward to adopt them.