Raccoon Dog !! Exist !

[727Sky]

I have never heard of such an animal ! Neat looking IMO https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-31/r...h/11166666

Print  Email Facebook Twitter More
Raccoon dog owner attempts to recapture escapee pets at large in English village
By Dannielle Maguire
Updated about 2 hours ago
Photo: Police told people to be cautious around the escaped raccoon dogs. (Nottinghamshire Police)
The owner of two raccoon dogs on the loose in an English village says he's considering using drones and thermal imaging technology to capture the "potentially dangerous" escapees.
Key points:

• The pair escaped early on Tuesday morning, cornering a dog walker, a pony and a pygmy goat as they fled
  
• Their owner is trying to capture the raccoon dogs with tracking equipment and traps
  
• Police said the animals were potentially dangerous but their owner says they were no more dangerous than a dog
  

The pair escaped from their pen in Clarborough on Tuesday (local time), a village near Retford in the United Kingdom.
The raccoon dogs were still at large two days later, with owner Sam Tune telling the BBC he could do with a drone pilot's help to recapture them.
"The best way to sort this is to get a thermal imaging drone," he said.
On a public community Facebook page, Mr Tune said he borrowed tracking equipment and was setting up traps, using sardine oil to lure his missing pets back to him.
He assured locals he was "on the prowl" to track down the runaways and called for sighting reports.
"I will be awake and actively searching intermittently from now until approximately 6:00am," he said on Thursday.
"Effort is being maintained to capture them."
Photo: Mr Tune assured locals he was actively searching for the missing pets. (Facebook: Sam Tune)

But it appears the saga is continuing in the small English community, with no reports of a successful capture as of Friday morning.
"[I] just want them back safely," Mr Tune said.
Escapees harassed villagers
Mr Tune's missing pets captured the world's attention after word of their antics spread on social media.
The Independent reported the pair prompted a "blood-curdling scream", with local residents Mandy and Dale Marsh saying one of the raccoon dogs had attacked their pony Peaches and a pygmy goat called Betty.
According to the report, the animals scampered off and then cornered a dog walker.
"It was hissing and screaming and snarling," Ms Marsh told the Independent.
"It was going absolutely mad.

"We ran in with two great big pieces of wood to try and shoo it off and try and get it to go away."

The creatures, which are members of the canine family and are native to Asia, were spotted by a number of local residents and their escape has been documented on the Clarborough, Hayton and Welham Community Facebook group.
Photo: Updates on the search were posted to a community Facebook group. (Facebook: Lucy Rose)

Nottinghamshire police released a public alert warning locals to be "vigilant" of the raccoon dogs.
"The animals, which are described as being the same size of a medium-to small-sized dog, are potentially dangerous if approached as they are not domesticated," a police spokesperson said.
On Thursday, Mr Tune tried to quell fears, telling the BBC raccoon dogs aren't "especially dangerous".
"A scared dog is potentially more dangerous," he said.
Online searches for 'raccoon dogs' spike
Stories about the animals' escape in the English village soon spread on social media, prompting many to search exactly what they were.
Twitter embed
Twitter: Tweet from Graham Brooks-Dale: "Ok, own up. Who's been googling racoon dogs?"
View on Twitter

The term "raccoon dogs" appeared in Google's top 10 search terms on Wednesday, with more than 200,000 queries.
Raccoon dogs originate in the forests of eastern Siberia, northern China, North Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, where they are known as tanuki.
They are now widespread in western and northern Europe and can be found in Finland, France and Austria.
Raccoon dogs have a fox-like appearance and are similarly sized, growing to a height of about 50 centimetres.
They have short, stocky legs and are not known for being particularly fast but, according to an Animal Diversity factsheet, they are "relentless in their search for food".
Racoon dogs are referred to as opportunistic omnivores, eating food such as wild berries, vegetables, small rodents, birds and occasionally crabs and sea urchins.
In Japan, they rely heavily on human garbage.
Photo: Racoon dogs are found in east Asia, but have spread to parts of Europe. (Reuters: Ints Kalnins)

The UK's RSPCA "strongly discourages" people from keeping the animals as pets.
"They need a great deal of space and their needs simply cannot be met in a typical household," a spokesperson said.
"They're also extremely smelly."
However, they are legally allowed to be kept as pets in the UK, however, laws established in February have made it illegal to sell raccoon dogs.
The laws ban breeding and require owners to keep their enclosures secure, as the animals threaten native UK wildlife.

[BIAD]

Me too, Sky...!! Never heard of one before and I've always had an interest in animals
and birds.

[guohua]

@"727Sky" 
Never seen one before, that is interesting.
Where we go fishing there are lots and lots of Racoons and Skunks that get into the large trash cans and we see them at night around our camp.
Never seen one that looks like that before.

[Ninurta]

Huh.

That wasn't what I expected at all.

Around here, "raccoon dog" means something else entirely, although we usually refer to ours as "coon hounds".


.

[Wallfire]

It looks like something that was used for its fur

[727Sky]

Huh.

That wasn't what I expected at all.

Around here, "raccoon dog" means something else entirely, although we usually refer to ours as "coon hounds".


.

Yep same here