This otter’s a rotter: Intruder pilfering park’s precious koi
A coy river otter that had weaseled its way into Vancouver’s walled Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden to feed on fish — koi to be specific — evaded park board trappers Tuesday and left officials guessing as to how it got inside.
Staff at the garden first spotted the otter in its jade green pond while they toured visitors around the site Saturday.
They learned it had been feeding on koi when they found piles of rose petal-shaped fish scales on the pond’s bank. And when they examined those scales, they understood from their size that it had feasted on one of the garden’s largest koi.
As of Tuesday morning, the otter’s cumulative catch numbered five adult fish of a total of about a dozen in the pond. But by lunch hour, that number ticked up one notch when the otter slipped onto shore with its sixth stolen fish.
It huddled in a dark cave under the Jade Water Pavilion in the western half of the garden where it loudly crunched and munched on its meal.
It slurped, smacked and sucked down the fish, then slid back into the water when it gagged on a bite. The otter washed its face in the water, swam a single length beneath the pavilion, then disappeared under the water again.
Not 10 metres away stood a park board trap, draped in tarpaulin, floored in fish oil-soaked carpet, and baited with pieces of raw chicken.
Howard Normann, the city’s director of parks, said the plan behind the live trap was that the otter would pop out of the water onto the bank to dry off, spot the cosy, cave-like quarters, and decide to snack on chicken for a change. Parks staff would then load the cage into the back of a truck and deliver the animal to nearby Stanley Park.
Last Friday the otter was seen on the playing field of nearby Andy Livingstone Park, and had been spotted wandering around in Chinatown, Normann said.
But parks staff say they can’t tell how the otter entered the garden. While there are a pair of gates that an animal could feasibly squeeze through on the east and north sides of the garden and drainage pipes coming from its pond, river otters are also able to climb trees.
Debbie Cheung, marketing and communications manager, said there were several places the otter seemed to like at the garden. Its favourite haunt was at the base of a Japanese maple tree against which it liked to scratch its back.
Predators, including herons and raccoons, are no strangers to the garden, but they typically feed on smaller catch. Many of the koi in the garden are decades old and very large, including Madonna, who Cheung said was around 52 years old.
She believed Madonna was still doing swimmingly, but it’s hard to be certain because koi are fairly inactive when it gets cold and they tend to stay on the bottom. By the afternoon several could be seen near the surface of an eastern arm of the pond, about as far from the otter’s makeshift dining room as can be. With half the large fish in the garden already snapped up, park board staff have precious few hours remaining to cage the crafty carnivore.
“I’m hoping that tomorrow morning somebody’s in there,” Normann said.