A YOUNG female otter has made her first tentative steps into the wilds of West Cornwall after being cared for by a sanctuary for more than 15 months.

Lotty, as she is named, was about seven weeks old when she was found abandoned by a couple in West Cornwall last year and taken to Paradise Park wildlife sanctuary in Hayle.

She quickly took to the milk offered and was also eating fish within a few days but staff at the park knew that she would need the companionship of other otters and seclusion from people if she was to become a wild otter again in the future.

And a place was found for her in special sanctuary, the New Forest Otter Park, Hampshire in March 2008 where she was befriended by another otter which had also been rescued as a cub.

Three weeks ago, Paradise Park's director Nick Reynolds went to pick both of them up, and start the release procedure.

Nick said: "It is great to have Lotty back in Cornwall, and that she can stay with the companion she has grown up with. The ideal place for an otter to be released is back where it came from, although this is not always possible."

Thanks to the couple who originally found Lotty and who live in a secluded location, Nick and his team built a large pen in a wooded riverside area.

For the past few weeks the otters have stayed in the enclosure being fed a diet of trout, and with a large pool of water to drink and bathe.

And earlier this week, the door to the enclosure was opened – Nick says the experiment worked 'perfectly'.

"I hid away and watched as Lotty came out and explored along the riverbank, but best of all she then went back to the pen and used the pool, before going outside again," he said.

"This means that she may well use it as a base for some time while gaining knowledge about her local area, and the confidence to find her own food.

"It was the perfect start to her new life as a wild otter back in Cornwall."

Food will still be supplied to Lotty and her friend for some time to come. Their nocturnal activities will be tracked by checking for footprints in sand which has been neatly raked across the open doorway of their pen.