Raccoons on the run: Dogs and drones search for escaped animals on Isle of Wight

Tracker dogs and drones are scouring the Isle of Wight for 4 escaped pistillate raccoons.

The animals broke escaped of their compound overnight and haven't been astatine Amazon World Zoo Park for precise long.

Locals are being asked to support an oculus out, but the zoo said the raccoons are "not usually aggressive".

"Everyone is retired searching and we person tracker dogs and drones looking for them," said supervisor Rowena Welsh.

"They are not unsafe and the protocol is for radical to telephone america consecutive distant and don't effort to attack due to the fact that they would beryllium precise frightened.

"They are not unsafe and they would beryllium much frightened of america than we would beryllium of them."

Posting connected Facebook, the zoo said the raccoons "are not usually assertive but volition beryllium scared".

"If you unrecorded locally delight cheque sheds, bonfire piles, they slumber during the time and go progressive astatine dusk," it added.

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Raccoons are nocturnal animals and the astir recognisable one, the North American raccoon, tin turn up to 90cm agelong with ample males sometime weighing implicit 20kg (three stone).

They are recognisable by their achromatic "mask" and black-banded tail.

Amazon World Zoo Park, adjacent Arreton connected the eastbound of the island, describes itself arsenic having the largest postulation of exotic animals connected the Isle of Wight.