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Koi fish return to Chinese garden, 6 months since ‘otterpocalypse’

In November, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden was closed after a river otter snuck in
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Parks staff are trying to catch the remaining koi and take them to the Vancouver Aquarium for safekeeping. (Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden)

Three adult koi are returning back to their home in Vancouver’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, after a river otter got into the pond and killed a number of fish last fall.

The three fish will be released at the garden Thursday morning, according to the Vancouver Park Board.

There, they will join hundreds of juvenile koi that have been returned to the garden since being removed and housed at the Vancouver Aquarium.

READ MORE: Vancouver garden where hungry otter gobbled expensive koi set to reopen

READ MORE: Staff relocating koi away from hungry otter at Vancouver Chinese garden

In November, a hungry otter gobbled up 10 of the fish, including a 50-year-old named Madonna, causing the park board to close the garden as biologists and volunteers worked to catch the culprit and save the remaining koi.

Since then, the garden’s entrance and exit points have been modified to deter future otter visits.


@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca

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A river otter in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in downtown Vancouver. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Sadie Brown)


About the Author: Ashley Wadhwani-Smith

I began my journalistic journey at Black Press Media as a community reporter in my hometown of Maple Ridge, B.C.
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