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Photo by Nikki Bennett / PNG

Not 10 metres away stood a park board trap, draped in tarpaulin, floored in fish oil-soaked carpet, and baited with pieces of raw chicken.

Howard Normann, the city’s director of parks, said the plan behind the live trap was that the otter would pop out of the water onto the bank to dry off, spot the cosy, cavelike quarters, and decide to snack on chicken for a change. Parks staff would then load the cage into the back of a truck and deliver the animal to nearby Stanley Park.

Last Friday the otter was seen on the playing field of nearby Andy Livingstone Park, and had been spotted wandering around in Chinatown, Normann said.

But parks staff say they can’t tell how the otter entered the garden. While there are a pair of gates that an animal could feasibly squeeze through on the east and north sides of Sun Yat-sen and drainage pipes coming from its pond, river otters are also able to climb trees.

Photo by Sadie Brown / PNG

Debbie Cheung, Sun Yat-sen’s marketing and communications manager, said there were several places the otter seemed to like at the garden. Its favourite haunt was at the base of a Japanese Maple tree against which it liked to scratch its back.

Predators, including herons and raccoons, are no strangers to the garden, but they typically feed on smaller catch. Many of the koi in the garden are decades old and very large, including Madonna, who Cheung said was around 52 years old.

She believed Madonna was still doing swimmingly, but it’s hard to be certain because koi are fairly inactive when it gets cold and they tend to stay on the bottom. By the afternoon several could be seen near the surface of an eastern arm of the pond, about as far from the otter’s makeshift dining room as can be.

With half the large fish in the garden already snapped up, park board staff have precious few hours remaining to cage the crafty carnivore.

“I’m hoping that tomorrow morning somebody’s in there,” Normann said.

mrobinson@postmedia.com