Renegade Jin gives keepers the slip for a ninth day

Otter-spotter Lily MacDonald. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland Zoo's runaway otter is the talk of Stanley Point.

Jin, an Asiatic short-clawed otter that has been on the run for nine days, was last sighted at 7.30am yesterday.

Her keepers believe she is probably in distress, hiding in a bamboo stack and using her claws to dig under rocks for worms.

A Stanley Pt resident called a radio station to report sighting Jin along Lytton St yesterday. The message was passed on to the zoo, but by the time keepers arrived with nets and otter recordings, Jin was hiding again.

Eight-year-old Lily MacDonald, who spotted Jin on her family's driveway in Stanley Point Rd on Tuesday night, was the first to make a sighting.

"I went and looked out the window and I told my Dad. I thought it was a meerkat!"

Her father, Philip, who works at the Department of Conservation, also spotted Jin and rang the zoo.

Three zookeepers with big nets, a trap with food and tape recordings of her family are scouring the area.

Zookeeper Sandra Rice, who took part in a helicopter search, said it allowed them to cover a large area in a short time.

"We really just wanted to capture the area where the Navy couldn't get into and where we couldn't walk because of the mud."

Ms Rice said flying barely 20m from the ground gave an excellent view. "We would have seen her if she was there."

The helicopter flew around Stanley Pt, across and around Ngataringa Bay, past the golf course, around Bayswater and back across the water.

Ms Rice said otters have quite a distinctive footprint, so Jin should be easy to track. Their paws are slightly webbed, around the size of a large cat's, and because they are soft and rounded there is no evidence of claws - unlike possums.

Stanley Bay School principal Glen Vinton said the children had gone otter-crazy.

"It's just the excitement of it. Several of our children have sighted it, and they have all been talking about it.

"A lot of the children brought in the newspaper clippings and it's been the hot topic," she said.

The sightings have so far followed the otter's usual feeding pattern, said Ms Rice.

"Otters are more active in the early morning and later in the day,"she said.

"It really needs to be a sighting where we can corner her.

It's hard enough capturing them in the enclosure, let alone in the wild.

"We won't give up until we catch her."

* Anyone who spots Jin should phone (09) 360-3800 or 027-291-9773.