The first otter to be spotted in the Randstad region since 1976 may have been killed by a car, just weeks after being captured on film.

The otter was recorded on a camera in January near the Nieuwkoopse Plassen, an area of lakes and marshes between Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

But now a dead otter has been found on the A12 near Gouda and officials think it may be the same animal.

This emphasises the need for wildlife tunnels under busy roads, a spokesman for the natural heritage organisation Natuurmonumenten told Nos television.

The otter is thought to have died out in the Netherlands in the 1980s, but since 2001 there has been a programme to reintroduce them in the north of the country.