Escaped Raccoon Sisters Recovered and Reunited

The last of four raccoons that had fled an island zoo has been successfully recovered and brought back to its sisters. Amazon World Zoo Park, situated close to Sandown on the Isle of Wight, issued a public appeal for assistance from local residents on Friday, following the escape of four 18-month-old female raccoons from their designated habitat. By Monday, three of these animals had been located, with the remaining escapee being rescued at 02:30 GMT. Rachel Patrick, the zoo’s head keeper, expressed her sentiments, stating she was “elated and so pleased that we have them all back now”. It was confirmed that none of the escaped raccoons had actually departed the zoo’s grounds, and all were found to be unharmed. The search efforts involved the deployment of tracker dogs and thermal cameras in an attempt to locate the animals. Ms Patrick reported that the last sister was observed “in a little crevice” at 19:30 on Tuesday evening. A trap containing meat had been positioned in the vicinity by the search team, but the young raccoon evaded capture for a period of seven hours. “Every time she got closer, and then she suddenly decided she wasn’t going in,” she recounted. The facility houses five raccoon sisters, each bearing a name derived from regions of the US, where these animals naturally inhabit. According to Ms Patrick, Winnipeg, Dakota, Myrtle, and Alma departed their enclosure on Thursday night, leaving Marion behind, after they “bust a hole in the roof” of their habitat. Currently, they are being accommodated in a temporary enclosure while necessary repairs are conducted on the roof of their primary habitat. Ms Patrick commented, “They are very happy to all be back together and have been sleeping on top of each other overnight.” She further expressed, “Thank you to everybody who offered help and the kind words and messages, they kept us going.” Tony Stevens manages a voluntary organization specializing in using trained canines to locate missing dogs. He stated that his group extended its assistance to the zoo following its call for help. “We’ve been doing whatever we can,” Mr Stevens remarked, also noting it had been “a massive team effort from the community”. The tracking dogs utilized a scent derived from the raccoons’ straw bedding in an attempt to precisely identify the whereabouts of the absent animals. “It was a new experience for the dogs,” Mr Stevens conveyed. Concurrently, Ben Ford, a commercial drone expert, provided his assistance and had been involved in the search for the escaped animals since Sunday. He mentioned the difficulty in differentiating the raccoons from other wildlife, especially when they moved into thick vegetation. His team employed thermal cameras as an aid in locating the sisters. Source: National Wildlife Federation For updates, follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.