Floating ferret rescued off Anglesey's Beaumaris Pier Published duration 15 March 2012

image caption Ferret Kon-Tiki gets a wash at the RSPCA's Bryn-y-Maen Animal Centre

Workmen helped to rescue a ferret found floating on a pontoon off the end of Anglesey's Beaumaris Pier.

They saw something moving under a wooden pallet lying on top of the floating wooden pontoon and called in RSPCA inspectors.

The male albino ferret has been named Kon-Tiki after a famous 1940s raft expedition across the Pacific Ocean.

It is not known how it came to be on the pontoon. It is being cared for at a nearby rescue centre.

RSPCA inspector Mike Pugh said: "How the ferret got there is beyond us.

"Clearly if it is a case of abandonment at this strange location then it could have meant all kinds of danger for the ferret."

He said the ferret had received a lucky break thanks to "some caring and quick-thinking construction workers".

The pontoon is accessed by steps at the end of the pier and one theory is the ferret was attracted by the smell of bait from fishermen.

Balsa wood raft

Work began last year on a £2m project to redevelop and refurbish Beaumaris Pier which will double its current width, and replace or strengthen all the current timber supports and decking.

The ferret is now being looked after at the RSPCA's Bryn-y-Maen Animal Centre in Upper Colwyn Bay.

Manager Becky Lloyd said Kon-Tiki was very tolerant despite all the treatment it had received for sores and ticks.

Kon-Tiki was the name of the balsa wood raft which was used to cross the Pacific Ocean in 1947 in a journey of 8,000km (4,900 miles).

The expedition was launched from Peru by anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl to demonstrate that South Americans could have settled Polynesia.