Otter gives wildlife enthusiasts the slip; PHOTOGRAPHERS HUNT FOR CREATURE LIVING IN CITY CENTRE.

Byline: AMY HUNT

AS ANY wildlifelover knows, animals do not always act on cue.

But attempts to film footage of an otter living in the heart of Newcastle have been frustratingly slow by anyone's standards.

Officers from Wild-Places, a project by the North East Wildlife Trusts, have been staking out the banks of the Ouseburn River in the city, hoping to catch the elusive mammal on film.

But despite setting up a four-camera CCTV system on the banks of the river and creating an island in the water, they have had no luck so far in their search for the now-infamous Ouseburn Otter. Spiders and moths have found the camera lens extremely attractive, meaning any good footage of the otter was hidden behind the ghostly shapes.

A fish island was specially constructed in an effort to lure the otter out of the water and in front of the cameras but the big, tasty bit of fish pegged to the island only served to feed other animals.

Even badgers and foxes got into the act of destroying chances of filming the otter when they repeatedly knocked over a motion-activated camera that had been set up under a bridge.

Then one of the cameras became waterlogged during a flood.

The WildPlaces team is now increasing its efforts to get the animal on film and is planning to set up an underwater camera. This will ensure that even if the otter slips below the river's surface its every move will still be captured on film.

WildPlaces, which started in April, aims to get members of the public to snatch film footage and pictures of wildlife living in urban areas all over the North East.

It is designed to give people the opportunity to experience and learn about animals that can often be found much closer to home than people think.

Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, WildPlaces hopes to use the latest camera technology to show how the most unlikely places are popular haunts for wildlife and to get people involved in doing their own spotting and secret camera work.

It is the first time all three Wildlife Trusts in the region have worked together in an effort to get a new audience involved in our natural surroundings. Badgers, foxes, red squirrels, kingfishers, bats, hedgehogs, herons, roe deer and rabbits have all been caught on camera.

Project officer Kara Jackson has been writing a blog, at www.urbanwildplaces.co.uk allowing people to follow her progress in staking out the otter and other creatures.

If you would like to get involved with the WildPlaces project, contact project manager Cheryl Nicholson on (0191) 584 3112 or e-mail cnicholson@durhamwt.co.uk

CAPTION(S):

STAKE-OUT: Kara Jackson is keeping a blog of her hunt for otters ELUSIVE: An otter like this one is living in the Ouseburn in the heart of Newcastle, but has proven difficult to capture on camera

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