VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Park Board confirms the slippery suspect accused of terrorizing the koi pond in Chinatown's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden has once again eluded capture.
Park board staff set six baited live traps throughout the park over the weekend, hoping to find a river otter in one of them on Monday morning.
Instead, staff who checked the traps found them empty.
The hunt for the elusive critter began after a koi carcass was found partially eaten on Tuesday, and by Thursday the death toll was up to six.
A similar scenario played out last November when an otter, possibly the same one, devoured a total of 11 large koi, including one believed to be close to 50-years-old.
As it did last year, the park board used nets to round up the surviving koi and transferred them to a secure location while the hunt for the otter began.
During "Otter Watch 2018," the suspect managed to avoid capture, and eventually left the park on its own, presumably because there were no more koi left to eat in the pond.
After being closed over the weekend, the public portion of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen re-opened Monday morning.
The park board says it does not plan to put the baited traps back out unless there is another sighting of the otter.
In the meantime, staff are exploring ways to make the pond more secure before returning the koi to the water.
