Raccoon on the loose spotted in Cornwall garden
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free Morning Headlines emailSign up to our free Morning Headlines emailCornwall residents were earlier urged to keep an eye out for a raccoon, after an animal was seen on the loose in a resident’s garden.RSPCA Cornwall shared a video taken by someone in the Gwennap area, showing the mammal, native to North America, roaming freely on their garden patio.The agency told locals to “be aware that a raccoon has been spotted on the loose today in the Gwennap area” and confirmed it had contacted the relevant agencies and specialists.It asked that if anyone was able to contain or safely secure the raccoon, to call the RSPCA helpline.The Falmouth Packet reported that all local zoos confirmed their raccoons were safely secured, suggesting the animal may have been someones pet.At around 6pm on Thursday, it was reported the animal had been found in a nearby greenhouse, and the RSPCA and a vet were en route.open image in gallery(RSPCA Cornwall)It is remarkably the second time this month that an exotic animal has been on the loose in Cornwall.A four-month-old flamingo that went missing from a St Ives wildlife park was discovered earlier this week living in France. Frankie the flamingo, who was born in July, escaped from a walled garden at Paradise Park during the morning of Sunday 2 November, despite having her feathers clipped on one of her wings.After more than a week of worry for her keepers, photographs taken in Tréflez, Brittany, revealed Frankie has flown south and has made it to northern France.open image in galleryFrankie the flamingo, who was born in July, went missing from a walled garden at Paradise Park in Hayle, near St Ives , during the morning of Sunday 2 November, despite having her feathers clipped on one of her wings (Josh Ryan Murray/Paradise Park/PA Wire)Nick Reynolds, director of Paradise Park, told The Independent: “Some pictures came up and showed a flamingo in France. We’ve just had some new ones come in which are fantastic and we can definitely see the wing that we clipped, so we can definitely 100 per cent identify it as being Frankie.”Despite being “devastated” that she is gone, Mr Reynolds said it looks like she won’t be coming back unless she decides to fly home herself.“The logistics of getting her back here would just be a non-starter,” he said. “Firstly you’ve got to catch her in France. Secondly we’d have to get the French to allow her to be taken into a quarantine facility and quarantined for 30 days. Then you’d have to get export permits and import permits, health certificates, quarantine her [in the UK] for 30 days and then when she’d got back to the park, after the external quarantine, it’s another 30 days quarantine here.
