A WILDLIFE trust is appealing for people to help support its spring otter survey

For the past two years, volunteer surveyors from Durham Wildlife Trust have been going out over the last weekend in April to look for otters and their field signs.

There is still time for volunteers to sign up to help out this year on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26.

The trust offers training in identifying otter tracks and spraint (droppings) and, once trained, volunteers are allocated a patch of river or watercourse near where they live which they can explore to identify a series of sites that are likely to provide a good chance of finding otter signs.

These could be bridges or rocks, or a patch of sand or mud where it is easy to see tracks.

On the morning of April 25, the volunteers go to their sites and record any otter spraint or tracks that they find.

The following morning, they go back to the same sites and record any new spraint or tracks, to provide a snapshot of otter activity across the whole of the Durham Wildlife Trust area on that Saturday night.

Anyone wishing to get involved, people should email Vivien Kent at vkent@durhamwt.co.uk with details of where you live to register your interest.