Otter rescued from roadside by villagers

Dec 6 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

VILLAGERS rallied round to rescue a young otter which was seen running down the main road through the settlement.

Elizabeth Palmer, who lives in Kirkwhelpington in Northumberland and first spotted the otter, said: “ I was worried that drivers coming around the corner would squash it.”

Neighbours Moira and Bill Short joined in with sturdy gardening gloves and a stout box.

Bill managed to handle the otter into the box and it was released into the nearby River Wansbeck.

Bill, who snapped the event, said: “ It actually stayed on the bank for a while looking at us before it swam away downstream. We have known for some time that there were otters in the Wansbeck, but they are rarely seen and usually much further downstream.”

Northumberland Wildlife Trust conservation officer Kevin O’Hara said that the otter looked around five months old.

“The first rule is to leave wild animals where they are, but in this case, because of the road, the villagers did the next best thing by taking it to the river.

“It is a young otter which had probably lost its family group.”

Otters’ recolonisation of the region’s waterways is one of the conservation success stories of the last 20 years, but a threat is the number who are killed on the roads.