An otter that wandered into a tranquil garden in Vancouver's Chinatown has been feasting on expensive fish in a pond but a park official hopes it will sniff out some raw chicken in a trap. An otter is seen behind a tree in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, in Vancouver in a recent handout photo.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Sadie Brown
November 20, 2018 - 9:00 PM
VANCOUVER - An otter that wandered into a tranquil garden in Vancouver's Chinatown has been feasting on expensive fish in a pond but a park official hopes it will sniff out some raw chicken in a trap.
The city's parks director Howard Normann says the otter could have arrived at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden on Sunday from Stanley Park, about a three-kilometre trek.
He says staff at the garden believe the otter has gobbled down five to six decorative koi, many of which had been there for decades.
It's not yet known if the garden's most popular and oldest koi, named Madonna, has escaped the clutches of the creature, the first of its kind to have entered the sanctuary in its 34-year history.
Officials have set up a cage containing raw chicken and a mat soaked in fish oil in the hopes of attracting the otter so it can be transported back to its home turf.
Normann says visitors to the garden have reported seeing an otter walking around the Chinatown neighbourhood for four days before it showed up to dine on fish in the pond.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018