'We've gotta our otter' - Durrell

Tuesday 12 January 2016

He's been on the run for more than a month but Durrell have finally tracked down their missing otter.

Geoff, the three-year-old south-east Asian short-clawed otter, has been caught living it up in St Catherine's Woods.

After several sightings of him over the last few weeks, his keepers set up a large trap in the woods and left out some of his favourite food - mussels and sardines - to entice him. He had a few days to get used to the trap before they set it and finally caught their escapee. 

Geoff the otter from Bailiwick Express on Vimeo.

They say he's in very good health but will spend the next 30 days in quarantine just to make sure he hasn't picked up any infections.

Durrell's Head of Mammals Dom Wormell said: “I think it’s a good job we caught him when we did as the weather is due to get a lot colder over the coming week. Geoff is an Asian short-clawed otter, a very small species of otter, and he may well have struggled to survive over a cold Jersey winter.

“While St Catherine’s woods did prove to be a great habitat for him, we could not leave him in that environment as he would have ultimately had an impact on the local wildlife that inhabit the woods. Also I don’t think the anglers that use the lake at the bottom would have been too pleased if he had taken up long-term residence in the area.”

Dom hopes to reunite him with the other four otters at Durrell as soon as possible but that could prove tricky if Geoff's dad isn't too pleased to see the wanderer return. His dad is the dominant male and may now treat Geoff as a rival so it could be that he'll be off on another adventure - to another wildlife park!

(Picture credit: Jenny Marzana)