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VIDEO: Otter, full on prized fish, escapes as security boosted at Vancouver garden

Otter ate 11 koi. Three remaining koi and more than 300 other fish were moved to the aquarium

An otter that dined on prized fish at a classical Chinese garden in Vancouver seems to have dashed as the facility takes steps to ensure the unwelcome critter doesn’t come back.

The city’s director of parks, Howard Normann, says automatic closers will be installed on two doors and plates attached to the bottom of them so the river otter can’t return to Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

Normann says two surveillance cameras will also be placed around a pond that was home to the garden’s collection of koi.

He says it’s believed the otter showed up in the dead of night by squeezing through the bottom of a gate.

READ MORE: Wilddlife relocation expert to oust koi-eating otter from Vancouver garden

The garden was closed last week to visitors but reopened on Thursday.

Normann says the otter ate 11 koi, including the eldest, named Madonna, which was estimated to be 50 years old.

The three remaining koi from the garden and 344 juvenile fish have been scooped out of the pond and placed at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The Canadian Press

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