Otter killed by car

Foxes, cats and the occasional hedgehog are the animals we think of as being the most likely examples of roadkill – but a more unusual case was recorded near Fore last week when a car struck and killed an otter.

“It looks like he was killed on Saturday night, but it was Monday before I saw him,” says Cllr Frank McDermott, who was saddened to see such a fine otherwise-healthy specimen dead.

“It was a fantastic male – I thought it was a female because he looked so full-looking, but he was a male, and as good a specimen s I ever saw in my life.”

It is around 20 years since Cllr McDermott last saw an otter locally – and he is optimistic that there may be others as it was unlikely the otter was living alone

A further heartening dimension Cllr McDermott believes, is that the fact that the creature had made its way up the River Glore: “He came up the river fishing, obviously, and for me that was a great sign: after all he didn’t come up the river to have a look at the abbey he would have been following fish.”

Unfortunately, it appears the otter opted to take a short cut home on the Fore side of the abbey, “and the only bit of road he had to cross he was killed on it” the Fine Gael man said, adding that he removed the carcase from the public footpath and disposed of it.