Otterly adorable: ‘Sparkly poo’ has been found inside a Cambridge University college

Otters have been spotted for the first time on the grounds of a Cambridge University college.

After Trinity College’s deputy head gardener, Karen Wells, discovered some unusual looking droppings which glistened like silver fish scales, she decided to investigate further.

In December last year, the college’s gardeners finally decided to install a wildlife camera after finding further evidence of a furry resident— from fish bones and empty mussel shells to webbed paw prints— on a little slab bridge across the brook hinted to the otters’ presence (as well as substantial amounts of poo).

After several weeks of reviewing night footage, an otter was finally caught on camera, roaming the eight-acre Fellows’ Garden.

It is officially the first apex predators sighted on the college grounds since Lord Byron (having been refused permission to bring his dog) brought his pet bear onto the site.

“It took a good few weeks before we actually caught it on camera”, Wells said, and at first “we got just a millisecond of the otter’s bottom disappearing back into the river.”

It wasn’t long before the boar (adult male) was caught crossing the bridge on camera, diving into the brook and trotting about the garden.

via Unsplash

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Karen admits the footage made her “squeal with delight”.

“It was absolutely magical and really exciting. It shows we’re doing the right things from a biodiversity and sustainability perspective”, she said.

Otters are a protected species in the UK, after a narrow squeak with extinction in the mid 20th century due to pesticide pollution which had proven catastrophic to the predators’ reproductive patterns.

They have since made an extraordinary ­comeback in England, and were spotted in the River Cam last September after new wetlands were created by the Cambridge City Council in a local nature reserve.

These otter spottings in “the Backs” of Cambridge spell great news for biodiversity experts and Cambridge gardeners alike. It shows that their work building a green corridor and much-needed sanctuaries for wildlife along the Cam river has paid off.

Featured image via Unsplash

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