The otter is today one of Great Britain's rarer mammals, a truly elusive creature which is as much at home in the water as it is on land.

However, going back to Victorian times, locally this streamlined carnivore could be seen in many of our streams and rivers.

The stuffed otter seen in our late 1970s photo was actually caught by local gamekeeper and wildlife expert Thomas Walker in Starkie Bottoms on a hot Friday evening, July 21st, 1916.

That night, Thomas was looking at his wooden traps he had set earlier for catching stoats, which were hunting down far too many rabbits, when suddenly he spied an enormous dog otter rolling over and over in the weir with its back legs caught up with chicken wire.

Thomas put on his thick leather gloves and waded out to the unfortunate animal and, with great skill, held it by its tail out of the water and with its fearsome jaws in his gloved hand, Thomas carried the aquatic beast on to the bank.

One of the otter's back legs was badly lacerated and Thomas gently carried the exhausted quadruped back to his cosy cottage a half-mile away.

Over the next few months, the four foot three inch otter was slowly nursed back to a full recovery and just when Thomas was ready to release Red (his new name), he tragically died on a cold, frosty December night.

Red was stuffed and mounted on a wooden shield and hung in Thomas's cottage for many years, but never ever again was an otter seen in bonnie Colne.