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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
