A Skye-based otter charity is arranging a training workshop in Bangladesh in a bid to prevent the creatures from being hunted to extinction.
And part of its efforts to encourage local people to value the otters is to encourage them to use the animals to help them catch fish.
Paul Yoxon, head of operations for International Otter Survival Fund in Broadford, explained that the workshop – to be held in Dhaka from December 8 to 12 – is aimed at encouraging the conservation, protection and care of otters.
He said: “It will encourage the next generation of otter workers to get reliable data on otters and develop effective education and public awareness programmes and enforcement of legal protection.
“It will also encourage community involvement through the environment and the otter-friendly tradition of fishing with otters.”
Mr Yoxon said otters were heavily hunted in parts of Asia, to a degree where they had become extinct in some areas.
He said: “If we can encourage more people to fish with otters, it will give them another way of earning a living and they won’t want to hunt them.”
Delegates attending the workshop will include park rangers and government officials from Scotland, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, who will then act as trainers in their home countries, and students from Bangladesh.