DAYTIME sightings of the rare and elusive otter are on the increase in the dales, according to river watchers.

The Yorkshire wildlife trust has based its conclusion on responses to widely-displayed posters, asking the public to report sightings, which launched an otters and rivers project conducted during the summer.

Posters were displayed in shops, post offices, bed and breakfast houses and noticeboards throughout the dales. One was also reproduced in The Visitor, the annual guide to the Yorkshire Dales national park.

With otters being regarded as largely nocturnal, the results have given food for thought to Ms Sylvia Jay, the trust otters and rivers project officer for the dales area.

She said: "Almost all the reports we received for the dales area over the summer months were for otters seen in broad daylight.

"This adds evidence to suggestions that otters are not as nocturnal as is generally thought. However, some of them may be moving about as a result of being disturbed, say by dogs running loose along the river bank or people trampling about in the shallows."

She said sightings had confirmed, however, that otters were present much further up Wensleydale than previously established, although it was too early to say whether they were permanent residents so far west. There had been new sightings from the Aysgarth, Leyburn and Middleham areas.

In Swaledale another record was for an otter seen two years ago at Reeth, but Ms Jay said her team was still excited by this observation.

Ms Jay's team is keen to continue to receive reports of otter sightings and wants local establishments to keep the posters up, but she stressed that people should not go specifically looking for the animals.

"If people hunt about in vegetation along the river side they are more likely to cause disturbance to any otters that are there and put them at risk. The reports we have had were chance sightings."

The project is funded by Yorkshire Water Services through the landfill tax credit scheme, and its £180,000 sponsorship has enabled the wildlife trust to double its project staff. The project team works with landowners, farmers, local authorities and the Environment Agency.

Ms Jay said: "The records are very important for our work. Knowing the distribution of otters helps us to target our habitat improvement work, which is aimed at helping otters to re-colonise dales rivers naturally at their own pace, building a sustainable population."

Mr Miles Foulger, catchment manager for Yorkshire Water Services, said: "This new information and the details of otter sightings will prove invaluable.

"It will enable anyone carrying out work along river banks, whether it is on our river care programme, a farmer, local council or anyone else, to avoid sensitive areas."