Otter and cub spotted playing in city river

An otter and her cub have been spotted swimming and playing in a city river.

The animals were seen in the Ouseburn, which flows into the River Tyne in Newcastle, on Monday evening. They began playing on a pontoon before swimming away.

They were filmed by Wild Intrigue, a community interest company which was carrying out a nature survey in the area.

Co-director Heather Devey said she saw the water moving "strangely" before the pair hopped on to the pontoon to play fight and scent mark.

"It’s most likely this is a new cub and the mother knows that the burn is a safe place to come and rest and feed during low tide," she said.

"The tidal nature of the lower Ouseburn makes it one of the best places to have wildlife encounters like this in the city.

"Just a month ago when I was walking by Ouseburn Farm at high tide, I had a Cormorant pop up right next to me with a huge flounder."

Ms Devey said otters were seen on the same section of the burn last winter, on the first day of Wild Intrigue's Wild Ouseburn project.

The project was set up to explore and document the species living in the valley to help inform how the area's wild spaces can be looked after.

The Eurasian otter is the only species of the mammal to live in the UK.

They can be found around the country but hotspots include the west coast of Wales and south-west England, according to the Woodland Trust.

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