A lone otter was found dead by the roadside in Yishun on May 30, 2019.

Dead otter spotted in Yishun

A female adult otter was spotted by the construction workers nearby along Yishun Avenue 1, near Yishun dam.

It was lying motionless on the grass patch next to the road, with no visible injuries.

[video width="640" height="362" mp4="https://static.mothership.sg/1/2019/05/t_video6305236595842744561.mp4"][/video]

Speaking to Mothership.sg, otter lover Marjorie Chong had gone down to look for the dead otter.

However, the otter was not spotted on the grass patch by the time she reached Avenue 1.

Chong tried searching through nearby garbage bins, finally finding the dead otter underneath some curry lunch boxes in the second bin.

Fortunately, she picked the otter up in time before the rubbish truck came.

*Graphic warning*

*Graphic warning*

After cleaning and praying for the otter, she then fetched the carcass to the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS).

According to Chong, WRS will be conducting a necropsy on the otter, to identify the cause of death.

Concerns over the rest of the otter family

As the otter was found in Yishun, Chong suggested two possible families the otter might belong to.

She might be from the Lower Seletar family which was spotted with pups recently.

You can see them scampering about in the photo below by OtterWatch:

Or it could be from the Helios family, from the Sengkang-Punggol area.

With the Lower Seletar family welcoming new pups recently, the dead otter might have been a mother.

Chong shared that, the loss of otter mum when the pups are still milking will be problematic as other female otters cannot feed the pups the same way.

There will be a higher chance of survival if the pups are already eating fish.

However, it is uncertain which family this otter belongs to.

Speculation

Facebook commenters speculated that the otter might have been a victim of roadkill, with one calling for greater management of human-wildlife conflict in Singapore.

 

 

All photos and video from Marjorie Chong, comments from STOMP comment section