Otter surprise as creature strays into suburban garden

Alicia Barratt said she found the unexpected visitor after her pet dog Mahla was sniffing the garden decking

A woman enjoying her new garden decking says she was shocked to find an otter underneath, a mile away from water.

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

The suburban home sits more than a mile away from the River Trent with a railway line in-between.

A wildlife expert said it was "quite unusual" to see an otter so far from a river or wetlands.

'Not a cat'

Ms Barratt said she was outside on a sunny day with her pet dog Mahla when she encountered the unexpected visitor earlier this week.

"I saw Mahla sniffing so I went to check it out, but there was nothing there," she said.

"So I popped my head under the other side of the decking and that's when I saw him walk across.

"I was just really shocked because we're in the middle of Carlton. I couldn't work out where he had come from."

Ms Barratt said she initially did not believe it was an otter and researched the mammal online.

"I thought 'he can't be an otter', but I'd taken some photos and saw his tail was so large and his body was so thin so I knew it was 100% an otter and not a cat," she said.

A wildlife expert said otters were "big, powerful animals" that can travel some distance for food

Erin McDaid, from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, believes the otter had strayed "a little off track".

"They can travel quite some distance in search of food, but they do usually stay by the water," he said.

"They are more usually associated by being next to the river, near to canals, wetlands, lakes and other water bodies.

"So, it's quite unusual to have one some distance from a river, but not completely unheard of."

Ms Barratt called the RSPCA who advised her to leave the otter alone and it would return to its natural habitat, which she said it did later that evening.