Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Joy and sadness at Skye’s otter sanctuary

Mel takes to his new surroundings following his release
Mel takes to his new surroundings following his release

It has been described as a week of mixed emotions for conservationists at the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) headquarters in Skye after one otter was released into the wild but another was found dead.

Conservationists were able to release one lively otter back into the wild towards the end of last week, with Mel taking to his natural habitat after spending a taking a bit of time to explore his new surroundings.

A spokesman for IOSF said: “Following the release of Aeris and Beatha last week it was time to say our farewells to Mel.

“As always, it is great to see all of our hard work pay off and get an otter back to the wild and back where it belongs.

“Mel took the time to enjoy all his new smells and surroundings as he explored the loch-side of his new home, before escaping into shrubbery for some shade – a true trait of his!”

Sadly though, conservationists discovered a week ago on Sunday that new addition to the otter hospital Storm had died suddenly at the Broadford base.

The spokesman added: “On the other side of all the happiness was the devastating news that our latest little otter Storm didn’t make it.

“After showing such early promise it was a heart-breaking shock to discover that he had died on Sunday morning. Cardiff University has carried out a post-mortem and can’t find any cause of death – which makes it that little bit harder.

“Unfortunately that is the nature of the rehab centre and we can’t save them all but it certainly doesn’t make it any easier when one of them passes away.”