Don’t get your hopes up. It’s not Kitchi.

Experts say the North American river otter recently photographed in Boulder isn’t a Cheyenne Mountain Zoo escapee that became something of a folk hero in Colorado Springs when he slipped away three years ago.

Otters are better swimmers than walkers and there’s no direct way for Kitchi to end up in Boulder, said Michael Seraphin, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman.

Did Kitchi hitch?

Otters have sharp teeth and aren’t the kind of animal people pick up, he said.

The zoo still holds out hope for the missing otter.

“Three years ago when Kitchi, our American river otter, escaped his enclosure we had hopes of his return,” said Tracy Thessing, zoo director of Animal Collections. “Today, we suspect that he is surviving in the wild, as he was wild born.”

A motion-activated wildlife surveillance camera captured what one expert calls the first documented sighting of a North American river otter in Boulder in about 100 years, The Daily Camera reported.

“As much as people would like it to be Kitchi, more than likely it is a wild river otter,” Seraphin said.

Officials think the Boulder’s otter came down from the South Platte River Basin, or ventured out of Rocky Mountain National Park.

North American river otters were part of a Colorado reintroduction effort during the 1970s, Seraphin said.

“It was more successful on the Western Slope,” he said.

The sighting of an otter along Boulder Creek has some thinking the species could again flourish. For people in Colorado Springs, though, it conjured up their favorite escape artist.

“It brings back memories of the hunt for Kitchi,” Seraphin said.

The image on the left is an endangered North American river otter photographed dining on a white sucker fish on March 7 along Boulder Creek east of downtown Boulder. The image on the right is Kitchi, a North American river otter who escaped from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in March 2010. Photo by Photos courtesy of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (left), Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (right)