Ecologist walks lost otter home down village high street in Cambridgeshire
Passesers-by did a double take as they spotted at otter apparently being taken for a stroll through the centre of Cottenham this week.
Ecologist Ian Ellis was helping the lost animal find her way back to the river after she had become trapped in a friend's garage.
He was called to the rescue on Friday (December 9) because of his previous work with otters - but after failing to capture the creature, decided the only way to return her to the wild was to shepherd her down the street and hold up traffic so she could cross the road to safety.
Ian, 46, from Cottenham, said: “My wife, Beth, and I had a call from a friend of ours who lives in the centre of the village saying she had an otter stuck in her garden, which took us a bit by surprise because they are around in the parish, but I don’t think they have ever been seen in the village. So we went down there to have a look and we found it in their her garage.
“It was trying to escape but there was no route out through the back garden because it had a new fence with no gaps. So the only way it could leave was onto the main road in Cottenham.”
After several attempts to capture the otter in a cat carrier, Ian admitted defeat. He called the Wild Otter Trust for advice.
“We sent them a photo and they said it was a healthy adult female who was obviously wanting to get somewhere. So we made a decision that the only way we could get her to safety was to walk with her down the road while my wife stopped the traffic so that we could cross over. She stopped a van and the driver got out and offered us his gloves. We met a few dog walkers and pedestrians along the way looking slightly bemused. Someone asked us if it was a pet! But one old chap walked right past us and didn’t even notice,” said Ian.
At one point the otter made a dash through a catflap into another person’s garden, but from there Ian and Beth were able to help her through a gap in the fence which led to a field and a direct route to the riverside.
“I’m glad she made it back - I think there’s a high chance she would have been run over if she had been on her own. I have done work surveying otters before and I think she must have gone further afield looking for food after a pond she usually fished in became frozen over,” says Ian.
“It was one of those things where I couldn’t quite believe what I was doing. Quite a bizarre experience, to be honest, but she only give me a nip on my boot once and seemed quite happy walking down the street with me - I was just there to make sure she didn’t run into the road.”
