The animals' rapid decline in the 1970s is being reversed
|
Otters are being given their own underpass to help them negotiate a busy main road.
It is part of conservation work to encourage the animals to populate a Staffordshire waterway.
The otter underpass is a tube laid under the A5 at Cannock, allowing the animals safely to reach Ridings Brook.
An Environment Agency spokesman said there had been no recent evidence of otters at the stream, but they were known to be living close by.
Project manager Roger Prestwood said otters were made effectively extinct in the Midlands in the 1970s.
"Their populations are slowly recovering but they are still vulnerable," he said.
"We are doing our bit to encourage them at Cannock by making it possible for them to travel safely along the river.
"We hope this will tempt otters to return to Ridings Brook."
A survey in 1991 found evidence of otters at nearby Saredon Brook and the Hatherton Branch Canal.
One-Minute World News
News services
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
