A non-native species with high risk of invasion to the UK could be lurking on the Wiltshire border.

Jon Williams and his 11-year-old daughter, Elli, believe the animal they saw outside Andover Rugby Football Club at 8pm on Friday, May 17 was a raccoon dog.

Raccoon dogs, also known by their Japanese name tanuki, are an Asian species native to the Russian Far East, China, Japan, Mongolia, Korea and Northern Vietnam. They have become established as an invasive species in parts of mainland Europe after having been brought to the western part of the former USSR for fur production.

Swindon Advertiser: An animal resembling a raccoon dog was spotted outside the Andover Rugby Football Club on Friday, May 17.An animal resembling a raccoon dog was spotted outside the Andover Rugby Football Club on Friday, May 17. (Image: Jon Williams)

Jon said: “Based on the way it looked and through internet searches and my wife being Finnish, who have them in their country, it’s what we believe it to be. But we are no experts. We can’t confirm 100 per cent it was one.”

The invasive European range of raccoon dogs extends as far west as France, but they have never established a breeding population in the UK. The RSPCA’s website describes them as a “highly invasive risk to native species in Europe”. Selling raccoon dogs has been illegal in the UK since 2019.

According to the GB Non-native Species Secretariat (NNSS), an organisation which aims to coordinate the approach to invasive species between the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Scottish and Welsh governments, the first reported sighting of a raccoon dog in the UK was in 2005 in Berkshire.

The NNSS has been contacted for comment and expert opinion on identification.