Relocation expert to oust koi-eating otter

The Vancouver Park Board says it’s time for plan B as a clever river otter eludes capture in a tranquil garden where it has made a den and is munching through a stock of large and valuable koi carp.

Parks director Howard Normann said the Ministry of Environment advised him to bring in an animal relocation specialist, who started work Friday at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in downtown Vancouver.

The specialists are “quite confident” they can capture the otter within hours, Normann said, especially since it has had a good experience with a humane trap set by the park board Wednesday. It snatched fish and chicken from the trap that was used as bait but escaped because a stick may have stopped the door from closing and snaring it.

There has been no shortage of suggestions on how to handle the otter, which arrived in the garden last weekend.

“I have heard everything from ‘Why don’t you just shoot the otter?’ to ‘Why don’t you bring more koi here and just keep feeding the otter?’ ” said Normann. “There’s a team otter. There’s a team koi.”

Loss of the fish has been difficult for staff and visitors to the walled garden in Chinatown because many of the koi are large. The eldest, named Madonna, is estimated to be 50 years old.

Of the 14 fish that were returned to the garden’s ponds last year after a renovation, Normann said it’s believed just seven remain, with all the losses blamed on the hungry otter.