Haxby resident David Findlay also blamed otters for his fish stocks being decimated in recent years.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n According to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, there are around 11,000 otters in the UK \u2013 people often assume there are more, but a male can occupy up to 30km of river as a single territory. It is hard to estimate numbers just in York for that reason.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trust said any work done to deter otters must be done under licence from the Environment Agency.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart said very few homes in the Bell Close area have ponds so he thinks an otter could have been attracted to his house by the sound of the water filter in its garden. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOnce it\u2019s [the otter] found it [the pond], it\u2019s been a bit of a bonanza for it,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart suspects the remaining fish in his pond, a 15-inch koi worth an estimated \u00a3300, would have been too large for an otter to take.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably too big for the otter \u2013 I don\u2019t know,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had that [fish] for about 23 years. And now he\u2019s just swimming round on his own, traumatised.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
Stuart Shaw next to his pond in Wigginton which he suspects an otter snuck into – and took \u00a31,500 worth of fish from (Image: Dylan Connell)\n<\/p>\n
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Sue and Stuart Shaw next to their pond in Wigginton which they suspect an otter snuck into – and took \u00a31,500 worth of fish from (Image: Dylan Connell)\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart, a retired railway worker, said he installed netting around the pond after herons attacked fish in the water on two previous occasions.\n<\/p>\n
\n But he said he did not suspect that herons were behind these incidents, putting them down to an otter crawling through flowers next to the net and entering the pond.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe way the fish have been eaten, there\u2019s no way it can be anything else [than an otter],\u201d Stuart said. \u201cIt\u2019s sneaked under some netting somehow.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart put more netting around the pond last Monday after finding the dead fish on his lawn.\n<\/p>\n
\n But, he said, \u201cthe next morning [April 21] around 6am, there was another couple of dead fish kicking about [on the lawn]. I was really annoyed then \u2026 I did my best in blocking it [the pond] off as I could.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart was travelling to France on holiday later that day when he said his neighbour phoned to say another fish had been found on the lawn.\n<\/p>\n
\n And last Wednesday, two more fish were found \u201cchewed up\u201d on the neighbour\u2019s lawn, Stuart said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stuart returned home last Saturday \u2013 and said another fish was found on his lawn the following day.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Monday, he said: \u201cI\u2019d seen some water and the other fish had gone.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019d been no sign of the fish, apart from little bits on the lawn.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
‘Hard luck that it\u2019s taken our fish’<\/p>\n
\n Stuart has been waiting up early in the morning this week to try and catch the otter \u2013 but has not seen anything. \u201cI presume it\u2019s probably gone now,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n If he sees the otter, Stuart said he will be \u201cannoyed with it, that\u2019s all. I\u2019m going to photograph it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe thing is, it\u2019s a wild animal, it\u2019s in nature, it\u2019s my hard luck that it\u2019s taken our fish.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut I\u2019m not going to spruce up the pond this year \u2013 I won\u2019t put any more fish in until probably next year.”\n<\/p>\n
\n David Craven, regional manager of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for East Yorkshire, said: “Spotting an otter in the wild is such a thrill but still a rare experience, as while numbers are recovering and the species is widespread, they remain elusive and spread across large territories.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If local rivers are not in great condition then otters may be forced to move out to find other sources of food, which can create conflict with people.\n<\/p>\n
\n “However, it is worth noting that the culprit can often be a case of mistaken identity, as there are far more of the invasive, non-native and similar-looking mink in the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We need healthy and wilder wetland habitats that support a rich environment of top predators like otters through to fish and dragonflies \u2013 and it is possible to restore and create beautiful places that accommodate our need for leisure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wigginton resident Stuart Shaw is warning others to check their ponds after around 20 of his fish were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-560355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}