IWhen it comes to promoting anything, it is important to find an image that really captures the essence of what you are trying to advertise.

Advertising men probably get paid a fortune in their quest to find the right image for their product.

Likewise, when it comes to saving wildlife, image is equally important and photographs of the cuddlier looking denizens of our wildlife have been used to great effect.

These images have included badgers, foxes, weasels, dormice and my personal favourite ambassador of wildlife, the otter.

In the past, otters were mercilessly persecuted and nearly driven to extinction in this country by both the persecution and pollution of their river homes.

In more recent times, the conservation efforts and drive to clean up our rivers had led to the otter beginning to make progress and to once again take its place as a common feature of our wildlife.

When I started work here in the Wyre Forest District Council Ranger Service some 15 years ago, the thought of going out to look for otters on the wetland nature reserves of the district would have been ludicrous.

In the last year or so, however, it seems to be a much more reasonable possibility.

I frequently get reports of otter on the River Stour and its tributaries and a walk these days at almost any point along the Stour will turn up indisputable evidence of otter.

This is mainly in the form of their oily droppings (spraint) with its distinctive smell, abandoned fish bones or, more rarely seen, fresh tracks in the soft mud particularly under bridges. Despite this wealth of evidence that they are very much at large in our district, even in very close proximity to the towns, few people have actually seen an otter.

I have only ever had one encounter and that was some 18 months ago when I saw one slip into the water and swim away in the River Stour near the village of Wilden.

This was a fantastic moment, which I will always remember, particularly as I was fortunate to be able to share it with my father who, like me, had never seen an otter in the wild before.

The reason that so few of us have been lucky enough to see an otter is really down to their nocturnal nature, plus they have learned a natural and, useful, fear of humans.

They can also be easily confused with the non-native mink that is a lot less shy than the otter and unfortunately for our nearly extinct water voles they are a frequent sight out on our waterways. Otter are larger than the mink and their fur, when wet, is much smoother looking.