Risca Girl Guides took another step towards achieving a working award by helping to build an artificial otter holt to help promote population numbers.
The girls carried logs, hammered in stakes, cut and stacked brush and used nails to create the creatures’ home as part of their Baden-Powell Challenge award.
The Guides then spent time on the banks of the Sirhowy River learning the feeding habits and skills of otters.
A decline in Wales’ otter populations in the 1950s almost pushed them to extinction, but over the last few years, the nocturnal animals have been making their home in many of Caerphilly’s rivers.
Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Senior Environmental Education Ranger Andy Wilkinson, said: “It is a key priority for us to work on protecting our local wildlife. The Girl Guides approached us and we were only happy to help them complete this project.”