Villagers rescued two baby otters abandoned by their mother in a pond in Thailand.

Anusak Khuanpetch was dredging the local reservoir when he spotted the pair of otter pups floating in the water in Chiang Rai province on May 28.

As there was no sign of the otters' mum nearby, Anusak scooped them up from the pool and called the Living River Siam Association, a nongovernment organisation, to fetch the orphaned animals.

He said: 'I have never seen otters around here before, but I knew they lived nearby. They eat the fish in the pond, and I find traces of their faeces and footprints around.'

Association president Somkiat Khuanchiangsa said the otters have been handed over to the Mae Lao Wildlife Breeding Center in Chiang Rai for further care.

The pups were identified as Eurasian otters aged around 45 days old. They weighed 1.9 and 1.7lbs and both measured 10cm long.

Somkiat said: 'We have been working on the habitat conservation of the otters and other aquatic animals so that they can live sustainably. Right now, the otter situation is worrying because their habitats are shrinking, which also means fewer fish. In the future, we will work with communities to create a conservation area for them.'

Meanwhile, Nuntikarn Somjit, animal husbandry technical officer at the Mae Lao Wildlife Breeding Centre, said locals who find injured or lost wildlife should report to the Department of National Parks hotline, or deliver the animals to their local wildlife centre.

She said: 'We will ask about where the animal was found, what food it has been fed since it was rescued, and how many days it has been raised. This information will be used to coordinate further care. The same goes for food. If it has been raised in the fields for a week, a month, or a year, we will ask about its diet to adjust how we feed it.'

The Living River Siam Association said it was collaborating with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi to set up camera traps and conduct DNA testing on the otter population in four communities in Chiang Rai.

There are four known species of otters in Thailand: the Asian small-clawed otter, the smooth-coated otter, the hairy-nosed otter, and the Eurasian or common otter, which typically grow the largest and heaviest among the four.

Eurasian otters are protected animals under the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act and are listed on the IUCN Red List as 'near threatened'.

Their habitats are vulnerable to man-made changes like dam construction, canalization of rivers, pollution, and aquaculture activities.

Otters commonly live along forest-adjacent riverbanks and water bodies abundant in food such as shrimp, shellfish, crabs, fish. They are also known to consume small fowl and reptiles.