Lost otter shows its teeth in rescue bid

AN otter found wandering in the main street of an east Clare village bit the hand of his rescuer as he tried to the creature to water.

Broadford farmer Joe Burke made little of the bite he sustained from the otter but instead expressed satisfaction at returning the mammal to a lake near Tulla.

Otters in Ireland currently have an unfavourable conservation status as a result of a decline in their population since the 1980s.

Mr Burke said: “The otter did bite, but it is a small superficial mark. It’s only a small scrape. I’m just delighted that we were able to rescue it and return it to water.”

Mr Burke explained: “I was at a shop in Tulla yesterday morning and I saw what I thought was an otter and I said to Mike Hogan ‘Is that an otter?’.”

The two went out on the street and identified the otter. Mr Burke said: “I went into rescue mode, because there was a danger the otter might be run over by a car.”

However, Mr Burke described the otter as “very aggressive”. He said: “Initially, the otter had its head in a Tayto bag and I thought it was at risk of suffocating. It was an emergency.”

Mr Burke said he and Mr Hogan retrieved a number of pallets in order to contain the otter.

“There was a crowd gathering at this stage beside the Courthouse in Tulla and we got a canvas bag with the idea of bringing the otter out to a local lake.

The farmer said: “We put the otter into the canvas bag and tied it and put it into my jeep.”

However, on reaching the lake, Mr Burke discovered that the otter had disappeared from the bag.

He said: “The otter had bitten through the bag and made its way out a hole in a window in the back of the jeep.”

Mr Burke said the otter had made it a quarter of a mile down the road back to Tulla, a half mile away.

He managed to secure the otter by placing a county council cone on top of it and carried it back to the lake.

“It started to try to bite us again and I knew that the otter was ready to get back into the water,” he said.

A state census of the otter nationally is ongoing. According to the last count, there were 5,866 adult females, 21.5% below the 1982 figure.

According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the otter continues to face significant threats and in particular from habitat destruction, water pollution, accidental death and persecution.

A 2007 study concluded that roadkills were probably the most significant cause of direct otter mortality and in response the National Roads Authority has prepared strict guidance for the protection of otters during the planning and construction of national roads.