It might be a splatter of poo on a rock by a stream, but environmentalists in South Bristol say they are excited by the discovery - which means otters have returned to a tributary of a tributary of the River Avon.
Far up the steep-sided river valley that falls from Hartcliffe to Bedminster, signs of otter ‘spraint’ - the dung of otters that they leave on rocks near the river - have been found in Crox Bottom, the semi-wild green space below the Imperial Retail Park.
And now conservationists and local campaigners say the discovery further strengthens their calls for housing development proposals further along the banks of the same river to be dropped, because of the environmental damage that would be done.
