{"id":133256,"date":"2025-11-11T02:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133256\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T02:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:43:10","slug":"otter-found-injured-by-taunton-road-recovering-at-rescue-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/133256\/","title":{"rendered":"Otter found injured by Taunton road recovering at rescue centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/47c75690-be2c-11f0-bd20-5b436a1e000e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"RSPCA West Hatch Iris the otter is being held by a carer.  Iris has dark brown and white fur. Her whiskers are covered in milk.  There is a white coloured wall behind her.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>RSPCA West Hatch<\/p>\n<p>Iris the otter was found injured by a main road near Taunton in Somerset<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A tiny otter cub found alone by a main road &#8220;has captured the hearts&#8221; of her carers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The animal was hypothermic and lethargic when she was discovered near Taunton, Somerset in October, the RSPCA said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The cub was taken to Shepton Vets before being transferred to the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre where staff named the otter Iris because of an eye injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Iris is now receiving specialist long-term rehabilitation at the UK Wild Otter Trust in Devon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Lily Herniman, an animal assistant volunteer at the UK Wild Otter Trust, said: &#8220;Iris has already captured all our hearts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;She came to us at a really challenging time for the charity &#8211; we&#8217;ve recently been given just six months to relocate and start afresh,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ms Herniman said: &#8220;No matter what else is happening, the welfare of otters like Iris remains at the very heart of everything we do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/02d529b0-be2f-11f0-bd20-5b436a1e000e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"RSPCA West Hatch Iris the otter is being held by a carer. She has milk on her whiskers and is being held under a red light.  There is a white wall behind her.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>RSPCA West Hatch<\/p>\n<p>The otter initially received treatment at the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The RSPCA team at West Hatch also treated Iris for bite wounds and scratches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Once stable enough to travel, she was transferred to her new home in Devon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Iris is expected to remain in care for up to a year, gaining strength and learning survival skills before returning to the wild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RSPCA West Hatch Iris the otter was found injured by a main road near Taunton in Somerset A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-133256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}