North American Raccoon caught on camera in Hampshire

An animal native to North America has been spotted eating peanuts at a garden in Hampshire. The raccoon, nicknamed Rocky, has also rummaged through rubbish and swiped food from a bird table.

The creature is thought to be an escaped pet and has visited the garden in Ringwood four times. ‘It was a shock but I feel lucky to have seen it,’ said John Rothwell, who took the photographs of the mammal from his conservatory. ‘It was shortly after midnight when this animal just walked past.



‘I didn’t know what it was to begin with but I knew that it wasn’t a cat or fox or even a badger. As soon as I saw it I knew what it was. It has such distinctive masks on its eyes like a bandit.

‘It came back for four nights in a row, eating peanuts that I’d left out for the hedgehogs.’ Raccoons are from North America and are nocturnal creatures, eating meats and plants. The RSPCA said: ‘As they are not native, this is likely to be someone’s pet which has escaped.’