A POLICE wildlife officer is asking the public for help to trace the journey of a scorpion that was discovered in the middle of a residential street.

The two-inch-long arachnid would usually be found in the desert regions of Africa or the Middle East, but found itself in the Mayfield Grove area of Harrogate, on Thursday afternoon.

The scorpion was found by a member of the public who took it to the local police station, but it died.

The species of scorpion has still not been identified, but it is known that it is not a breed that would usually be found in the UK.

PC Gareth Jones, wildlife officer for North Yorkshire Police, said he would still like to know how the scorpion came to be in Harrogate and to try to track down the person who brought it to the area.

“Although I haven’t managed to identify the exact species of scorpion yet, I do know that it is not one commonly traded in pet shops across the country,” he said.

“It may well have been a stowaway in a consignment of fruit or hitched a lift with someone who may have inadvertently brought it back following a foreign trip.”

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was unable to confirm how many scorpions are brought into the UK each year, but said to import one into the UK would require a licence with strict restrictions on who could keep the animal.

Scorpions are hardy creatures which survive in some of the harshest terrain in the world, eating mostly insects.

They are feared for their sometimes poisonous venom.

However, as they are burrowing animals, they struggle in areas without soil or sand, which may be why the Harrogate scorpion was unable to survive for long in the street.

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said anyone who finds an exotic or unidentified creature should contact them to collect it and avoid touching it.

Anyone who may have seen the scorpion before Thursday, September 2, is asked to contact PC Jones on 0845-60-60-24-7.