Dems credit Mamdani with otter’s return to NYC, but experts cry foul

Otterly absurd! 

Dems have fallen so deep under Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s spell that they’re crediting him with the return of an otter to the Bronx River for the first time in about 100 years — despite the decades of work locals have put into restoring the waterway.

A North American river otter was spotted frolicking in the brush beside the Bronx River in June, the first time the animal has been seen in the borough in roughly a century, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society Bronx Zoo. 

Mamdani’s legion of online fanboys quickly rushed to credit the socialist mayor for the small marine animal’s return to New York City.

“Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an otter has been spotted in the Bronx River for the first time in 100 years,” Democrats Deliver — a pro-Democratic social media group — posted on X.

“NYC is healing,” lefty Gen Z influencer Harry Sisson wrote while sharing their post.

Numerous other accounts weaseled their way in and posted news of the otter’s return juxtaposed with a grinning Mamdani.

But the Bronx River Alliance quickly threw cold freshwater on the love fest, telling The Post that the otter’s return was due to a decades-long effort, not the social media star mayor.

“The communities along the Bronx River have been fighting for over 50 years to bring the river back to life after decades of pollution and neglect,” Bronx River Association Outreach Manager Victoria Toro said.

She said that volunteers from the Bronx spent years physically removing piles of trash and debris that actively harmed wildlife from the river.

“People didn’t even know there was a river there because it was piled so high with trash,” she said, referring to the sorry state of the Bronx River for decades.

Much of the Bronx River was dammed up for years, Toro explained, as factories located along its banks flooded it with industrial waste — driving away marine life.

“This is the 25th anniversary of the Bronx River Alliance and we’re proud it coincides with the first spotting of an otter in 100 years,” she said.

River otters were once as common in New York City as squirrels or rats, but habitat destruction drove them out of the city.