Albino otter found dead
Builder sees body of rare animal at busy roadside
A rare albino otter which had made the Clyde its home appears to have been killed on a busy Lanarkshire road.
Motherwell man Damon Mclaughlin spotted the animal’s body lying by the roadside as the M74 turn-off joins the Motherwell Road from Hamilton, just before the Clyde Bridge, last Wednesday.
Damon (31) who runs a construction company said: “I was returning home from work with a couple of colleagues.
“I looked out the side of the van and noticed the animal lying there.
“We wondered if it was a dog or an otter, so we took a bit of a detour and returned to the site to make sure.
“It was strange because I had read a previous Advertiser story about the all-white otter earlier that day by sheer coincidence, so to see one lying lifeless by the side of the road was quite a surprise.”
An all-white otter was spotted in January this year by Bothwell couple Edward and Diana Mallinson who had been walking on the Livingstone Bridge.
They had watched it for 10 minutes swimming in the river just downstream of the weir.
Mr and Mrs Mallinson sent a picture of the creature off to the Otter Survival Fund on the Isle of Skye, who confirmed it was an albino otter.
Dr Paul Yoxon of the Otter Survival Fund said of Damon’s discovery: “It is an albino otter, and probably the same one spotted earlier this year as they are so rare.
“It’s a shame. Many otters die on the roads.”
Former South Lanarkshire Council ranger and United Clyde Angling Protective Association secretary Tom Mcgregor said this week: “Otters do get killed on our roads – and I’d be certain that’s what has happened here. They’re not easy animals to get hold of.
“I know of two dead otters being found on Lanarkshire roads in the last 20 years – one on the M74 and the other at Garrion Bridge.
“If there is an underpass available, they can use them. However, they will cross roads and sometimes get it wrong.”
The elusive mammals have been returning to the rivers Clyde and Avon in recent years, but an all-white otter is an extremely rare sight. Albinism is caused by a lack of pigment and it is hard for albinos of any animal species to survive.