Everyone loves a little fine dining once in a while – and one likes to enjoy fancy fare in a gorgeous setting.
Apparently the same goes for animals.
An adorable otter decided to turn a famous Canadian landmark into his own personal fine dining restaurant.
The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, also known as “scholars’ garden,” is touted as the first Chinese garden built outside of China and is named as the World’s Top City Garden by National Geographic, according to to the garden’s Facebook page.
The garden’s features represent significant beliefs in Confucian and Daoist tradition.
Its faux mountains represent strength and power and flowers are chosen for their symbolic qualities. The fish in the pond located in the center of the garden are associated with wealth and abundance.
This is where the otter created his own personal dining room.
“This is actually the first time we’ve seen an otter in the Chinese garden,” communications director Debbie Cheung told Global News. “It took us by surprise too.”
Inside the garden’s gorgeous pond are more than a dozen large koi. And koi are a juicy delicacy to otters.
So, this visiting otter had himself quite the fancy feast.
“The kois are part of our team so it’s quite devastating for us,” Cheung told CBC. “But at the same time the otter is looking for food, right? We don’t want to blame the otter.”
Koi are considered to be a gourmet meal for otters because they are extremely expensive since they are decades old fish.
The otter chowed down on five whole fish!
“This morning #VanParkBoard staff are at Sun Yat-Sen Garden working to find and relocate the local otter who’s recently begun fishing in the garden’s pond. The welfare of the otter and the pond’s iconic koi fish are our top priorities,” the Vancouver Park Board wrote on their Twitter page.
Park staff aren’t sure where the otter came from or how he got into the park which is walled off.
He was almost captured when the park staff offered him some chicken in place of their koi but the otter didn’t fall for it.
“It is a river otter so we had to go through different organizations and departments to see who can come and help us catch the little guy and release it,” Cheung said.
The park is taking this opportunity to figure out how they can protect their wildlife from any other predators that try to sneak in.
They are also looking to protect one specific fish, their beloved 50-year-old koi named Madonna.
“The five bodies we’ve seen so far isn’t her,” Cheung said.
“She’s been with us for 20 years and it would be very sad if we lost her.”
The park says they are keeping their fingers crossed that they can find the otter and relocate him as soon as possible. The plan is to relocate him to nearby Stanley Park. You can see the otter in action in the video below.
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