WITH her big eyes and loving temperament, Honey the otter is a real cutie, but therein lies a problem.

She loves people so much that she flatly refuses to be released into the wild. Each time it has been tried, she simply seeks out the nearest human.

Now a secret sanctuary has been built in the depths of the North Yorkshire countryside for Honey, who prefers a sofa to a leafy river bank.

She was curled up on just such a bed when she was rescued from a house in Scotland in December and she has since been in the care of volunteers from the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) in Edinburgh.

To their dismay, her rescuers quickly discovered she had been raised as a pet as she continually refused to run wild.

However, otter expert Paul Bullimore, of the Sea Life Centre, at Scarborough, has come up with the answer after he teamed up with an animal-loving farmer from North Yorkshire.

Yesterday, Honey was settling into her new home after she was given a free trip from Edinburgh to York by rail company GNER.

Mr Bullimore said: "Orphaned otters have to be reared with the minimum possible human contact if they are ever going to make a successful return to the wild.

"This one has obviously been pampered, and sadly her chances of adapting to the freedom of the open countryside are probably non-existent."

The farmer has a pond that has been enlarged and he has built a 50-metre by 25-metre enclosure.

Between them, Mr Bullimore and the farmer have also built a wooden shelter -or holt -to let Honey lead as natural a life as she can, but somewhere she can also be fed regularly and taken care of.

However, Mr Bullimore and the IOSF hope Honey will prove them wrong and regain her wild instincts sufficiently for another release attempt.

Mr Bullimore said: "It's highly unlikely, but it would be nice to think we will be able to open a gate one day soon and watch her race off to the nearest river.

"At the moment, it is more probable that she would run up and nuzzle someone's leg, and for an otter that is a real tragedy."