All 4 raccoons that escaped from Amazon World near Newchurch at the tail end of last week have been found and are now safely back in their enclosures.
It was during the early hours of this morning (Wednesday) that the fourth and final missing raccoon was found, much to the relief of all the zoo’s keepers and the wider Isle of Wight community.
The all-female foursome became national news last Friday when the public was asked to keep an eye out for the escaped raccoons, who had only been in their new home at Amazon World Zoo Park for 3 weeks.
The first escapee was located late on Friday night, followed by a second early on Saturday evening. The third was caught Sunday night into Monday morning – with all attentions then turning to the mischievous fourth.
A fifth raccoon decided that their enclosure was quite nice and stayed behind, not following in the footsteps of her sisters.
A spokesperson for Amazon World has said:
“Thanks to Ben the thermal drone guy for helping well into the early hours by tracking heat sources either running (or hopping) around the zoo when we can’t see everything with our eyes because it’s pitch black out there!
Article continues below this advertisement “Thanks to Track a Dog team for their continued support! We’ve seen them every night with dogs or thermal cameras checking all the hedges for us.
“Thanks to all the staff for working through the night and also the staff working through the day (often short) so the night team can get some sleep.
“And thanks for support and kind messages from all across the world. They mean so much”.
Would be interesting to know HOW they were caught?