Drivers on one of South Bristol's busiest roads are being urged to slow down and look out for otters - amid fears a fledgling population living nearby could be wiped out before they get established.
Wildlife experts and local residents have been left distraught after the second road death of an otter in the past year or 18 months was discovered on Hartcliffe Way, the main road that connects Bedminster with Hartcliffe - at a spot where otters were only discovered in the past couple of years.
The Greater Bristol Otter Group worked with the local Friends of Crox Bottom during 2021 to gather the surprising evidence that otters were living on the Pigeonhouse Stream, a fairly small river that flows from Imperial Park in Hartcliffe down to join the River Malago at the bottom of the Western Slopes between Bedminster and Knowle West.
Read more: 'Exciting' discovery of otters living in South Bristol stream
Bristol Live broke the news that otters were found living on the Pigeonhouse Stream almost exactly a year ago, with wildlife experts saying it was both surprising and encouraging that the mammals were branching out from their usual habitats on the River Avon and the River Frome and into urban South Bristol.
Warning: This article includes an image of one of the otters that some readers may find distressing
The initial clue that otters were living between Bedminster and Hartcliffe and near Headley Park came when one was hit and killed by a car on Hartcliffe Way in 2021.
After that, evidence was found that proved it was not a lone, rogue otter, but there was an established population in the streams of the Malago Vale - which gave added impetus to the calls to stop a controversial housing development on the Western Slopes, above the spot where the Malago and Pigeonhouse rivers meet. But now, another otter has been found killed by a vehicle on Hartcliffe Way, which passes over both rivers close to where they merge.
Hannah Watts, from the Great Bristol Otter Group, has asked for drivers to take extra care when driving along Hartcliffe Way, particularly as the road passes the entrance to Crox Bottom on the west side and, going up the hill, along the stretch between the new South Bristol Recycling Centre and the turn off to Knowle West and Inns Court.
The body of the otter found in the past few days has been stored and will soon be transported to Cardiff University, where a post-mortem is carried out to assess the health of the otter, and provide more clues about the population that has started to make South Bristol its home.
Hannah said people in South Bristol should try to look after the otter population, because it is unusual and surprising to find them there. "When we found the spraint and concluded that they were living there, it was surprising. The river system in South Bristol involves lots of long culverts and it's kind of cut off from either the open countryside to the south, or the River Avon to the north," she said.
"There are established otter populations on the River Avon and the River Frome in Bristol, but we were surprised that they had managed to find their way to somewhere like the Malago and the Pigeonhouse Stream. I'm intrigued about how they managed to do that, their journeys there must have involved over ground in an urban environment," she said.
The Great Bristol Otter Group and local wildlife experts say more should be done to protect otter populations in urban environments, like the Malago stream system. "The rivers go under Hartcliffe Way and are culverted a lot under the road.
"Otters are naturally very cautious of things like tunnels, and will avoid taking a river route where they can't see what's ahead or where it goes, so it's very likely that the way they find to get from Crox Bottom to the Western Slopes or back again does involve going up onto the road and risking crossing the road there.
"The authorities should be looking at how to make this area more accessible for otters. That could be looking at the river as it goes into the culvert - there's a big grate and weir system there which isn't particularly accessible. In other places, research has shown that having reflectors on the road at the crossing points can help the otters see the cars coming at night, there's different things that can be done."
Avon Wildlife Trust has announced it formally opposes any development on the Western Slopes, and Hannah said more should be considered to help the wildlife in the area. "Bristol has recently declared an ecological emergency, so doing more to help the otters here should fit in well with those aims," she added.
"In the meantime, it would be great if drivers could slow down and take extra care on the parts of the road where the otters cross," she added.
Read more:
- Experts stunned to find beavers living wild on Bristol Avon for first time in almost 500 years
- The A to Z of Hartcliffe - 26 (and more) things that put the heart into the 'Cliffe
- The 14 strangest animals you might see in Bristol
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