A PAIR of “feisty” otters cubs who were discovered near a busy road by a music fan on their way to a festival are “coming on very well” , an expert has said following their rescue.
The two young otters were found by Ellie Macgregor and were “only a few feet away” from the A835, south of Ullapool, near Leckmelm Gardens, as she headed down to Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on Saturday morning.
Following the discovery Macgregor notified Noel Hawkins, a well-known local ambassador for wildlife and part of the environmental campaigning group, Ullapool Sea Savers.
Hawkins, along with the help of Scottish Water’s Stephen Edwards who was in the area working and Anne Falconer they were able to find the two young Otters in the undergrowth only a few feet from the “very busy” road.
“They were acting strange, and we sadly assumed [their] mum had been hit on the road or something, and with the high risk of them being hit too, we opted for an uplift,” Hawkins explained.
After the pair of youngsters were safely rescued, they were checked over and weighed by a vet from the Conanvet veterinary practice in Ardlair.
The otters were then driven to Achnasheen and handed over to Grace Yoxon, director of International Otter Survival Fund, on Skye, where the “little ones” will be looked after and hopefully returned to the wild once they are bigger and ready.
The pair have since been named Bella and Drum due to them being spotted by Macgregor on her way to the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival.
Yoxon told The National that since the pair were handed over into her care, they are coming on “really well” and have put on about 200g each already.
She added that they are now eating salmon on their own and are “very feisty,” which Yoxon said is “good to see”.
The International Otter Survival Fund is a dedicated organisation to the protection and conservation of 14 otter species.
