Dining otter dashes from garden after eating its fill

An otter that dined on prized fish at a classical Chinese garden in downtown Vancouver seems to have dashed as the facility takes steps to ensure the unwelcome critter doesn’t return.

Howard Normann, director of park operations for the city, said automatic closers will be installed on two gates and plates attached to the bottom of them so the river otter can’t return to Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

Two surveillance cameras will also be placed around a pond that was home to the garden’s collection of decorative koi, Normann told a news conference at the garden Thursday, when the facility reopened to the public after closing on Nov. 20. That’s after staff began noticing koi carcasses near the pond and visitors spotted an otter on the scene.

Traps baited with raw chicken and salmon were set, but the otter made off with the food without getting caught. Six more traps that included fresh trout were left untouched, Normann said.

The otter ate 11 koi and hasn’t been seen since Saturday. The oldest fish, named Madonna, was estimated to be 50 years old.

“Madonna’s no longer with us,” Normann said, adding the three remaining koi and 344 juvenile fish have been scooped out of the pond and placed at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The garden has not yet decided when the koi will be returned to the pond, but Normann said that may not happen until spring.

It’s believed the otter squeezed through the bottom of a gate in the dead of night and attacked the koi, which were donated by the Korean pavilion after Expo 86, he said.

Normann said the wily visitor is likely to return but would leave once realizing there’s nothing left to eat.