A GUEST house in Pickering is being visited by some nocturnal intruders - and now guests can watch footage of their escapades.

Vivers Mill bed and breakfast, on the banks of Pickering Beck, has for a while been a favourite nighttime haunt of a pair of otters.

Now owners Mike and Sue Saul have set up a night-vision camera which, when triggered by the otters' movements, records footage of the animals.

Due to the fact that the B&B is based in a centuries-old water mill, the otters can get into the wheelhouse to play around.

Mike said: "This is inside the wheelhouse where I have my workshop and we walk through every night to our bedroom.

"Several times we have had an otter run right past our feet as we walk through. We believe there are at least two otters. They are apparently territorial, so mostly they come in, walk around, ‘scent mark’ their territory by rolling around on this piece of carpet and exit via the mill race.

"They are also playful and several times I have found various items distributed around the floor."

Now, thanks to the new camera trap, the otters' visits are being recorded.

"We have now installed a TV in the dining room so that our guests can watch it over breakfast," said Mike, adding that the technology has allowed them to monitor their otters from anywhere in the world.

"Whenever the spy-cam detects movement it 'pings' on my iPad," he said. "One night when we were on holiday in March in Gran Canaria we heard the 'ping', logged in to the app and we were able to watch the otters live over the internet in our hotel - now that was surreal."