| Otter or mink?
One morning last year, we discovered nearly all the fish in our garden pond had been eaten by something overnight. The weed in the pond was churned up, so something had obviously been in the water (therefore not a heron), and we found a patch of small fish fragments and scales on the side, suggesting the culprit had brought out each catch and eaten it there and then. We assumed we might be lucky enough to have an otter in the area (or unlucky depending on how you looked at it!).
We have a stream running along our boundary which is the start of the River Fal. There are small trout in it, its is very rural and quiet and we are confident that it could be good otter territory. This stream runs through our neighbours land, and she was out gardening, when she caught sight of something moving along the bank. She maintains it was definately an otter, and it got quite close before seeing her and dashing away.
However, having discussed this with a local aquatic supplier recently, he said otters would not discard any scales or fish fragments and it was more likely a mink, as they are much more bold and would venture into our pond (quite close to our house), without any fear of us.
As this happened at night, I am still quite willing to believe it could be an otter. As we have not actually seen it ourselves, we obviously only have the evidence and our neighbour's account to go on. Any views or comments would be appreciated.  |