A retired farmer has captured on camera what he believes could be a wild wallaby living in Scotland.

Jim Shanks, 68, decided to set up a motion sensor camera after neighbours spotted a mysterious animal the size of a large dog with a very long tail during the night.

People in the hamlet of Belses in the Scottish Borders were worried it could be a predator that would attack livestock in the area.

Mr Shanks tried to find out by borrowing a camera from a friend and attaching it to a tree.

After three weeks capturing images of various animals including foxes, rabbits and hares, he caught the creature on camera and now believes it is a wallaby.

He said: "I've been to Australia and seen wallabies and I'm convinced that is what it is, although someone else may disagree.

"A neighbour had seen an animal cross the road at about 10 at night and we couldn't figure out what it was.

"The neighbours were curious as to what it was.

"I borrowed a camera off a friend of mine. It was up for about three weeks before we caught it. I got badgers, hares, deer, foxes, stoats before the wallaby appeared.

"Nobody knows where it came from. My daughter is a vet in Carlisle and she says there have been quite a few in the wild in Cumbria but it's 50 miles away so I don't know.

"Perhaps this is proof that global warming is affecting animal migration into the Scottish Borders. I'm pretty certain it was a wallaby."

Wallabies are native to Australia and are herbivores. A colony of the marsupials was introduced to Inchconnachan island at Loch Lomond in the 1920s by Lady Colquhoun.

There were plans to cull them in a bid to save the capercaillie population.