Otter surprise as animal wanders off into rural garden

A female enjoying her brand-new garden decking says she was shocked to discover an otter beneath, a mile far from water.

Alicia Barratt said she made the discovery after her dog began smelling the decking at her home in Nottingham.

The rural home sits more than a mile far from the River Trent with a train line in-between.

A wildlife professional said it was “rather uncommon” to see an otter up until now from a river or wetlands.

Ms Barratt said she was outdoors on a bright day with her animal dog Mahla when she came across the unanticipated visitor previously today.

“I saw Mahla smelling so I went to inspect it out, however there was absolutely nothing there,” she said.

“So I popped my head under the opposite of the decking which’s when I saw him stroll throughout.

“I was simply truly shocked since we remain in the middle of Carlton. I could not exercise where he had actually originated from.”

Ms Barratt said she at first did not think it was an otter and investigated the mammal online.

“I believed ‘he can’t be an otter’, however I’d taken some pictures and saw his tail was so big and his body was so thin so I understood it was 100% an otter and not a cat,” she said.

Erin McDaid, from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, thinks the otter had actually wandered off “a little off track”.

“They can take a trip rather some range looking for food, however they do normally remain by the water,” he said.

“They are more normally associated by being beside the river, close to canals, wetlands, lakes and other water bodies.

“So, it’s rather uncommon to have one some range from a river, however not entirely unprecedented.”

Ms Barratt called the RSPCA who recommended her to leave the otter alone and it would go back to its natural environment, which she said it did later on that night.