A river otter with a taste for valuable koi carp may also have a flair for drama as it continues to avoid humane traps and confound efforts to remove it from a classical Chinese garden in downtown Vancouver.
Two more traps have been added to the one set late Tuesday in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen garden but spokeswoman Debbie Cheung says not only has the otter evaded capture, it also appears to have snatched the bait.
She says the salmon, tuna and chicken were gone from one of the traps when staff arrived Thursday morning, but there was no immediate sign that any more koi had been eaten overnight.
One of the traps is barely a metre from what officials believe is the ottersa国际传媒檚 new den and another is near the area where staff have found gnawed remains of most of the six large, valuable koi that were among more than a dozen of the gardensa国际传媒檚 once-thriving carp stocks.
The citysa国际传媒檚 director of parks Howard Normann has said motion cameras could also be installed in the garden in hopes of tracking the otter, and Cheung says itsa国际传媒檚 time to sa国际传媒渓ook at plan B.sa国际传媒�
The public side of the extensive, walled garden on the edge of Vancouversa国际传媒檚 Chinatown has been closed while the search for the otter continues.
sa国际传媒淚 feel really sad that we are losing our koi but at the same time, the otter is really smart,sa国际传媒� says Cheung. sa国际传媒淚 hope that he is full from eating the bait and doesnsa国际传媒檛 go after our fish.sa国际传媒�
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How the otter arrived in the tranquil, walled garden remains a mystery but Vancouver resident Chris Galer has offered a clue.
He has a photo of an otter he spotted scampering across streets in Chinatown on Saturday night before it disappeared in bushes, barely a block from the Sun Yat-Sen enclosure.
sa国际传媒淚t was clearly an otter,sa国际传媒� Galer says, adding his wife didnsa国际传媒檛 believe him until they both saw it as they crossed another street.
Officials say they hope to trap and relocate the otter to Stanley Park, believed to be its home.
The Canadian Press
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