California’s River Otters Are Cute, Cuddly—and Keep Attacking People
This article originally appeared on Backpacker
Wildlife experts are warning adventurers to give river otters a wide berth as they evaluate reports about a string of attacks by the animals in Northern California.
In the most recent incident, 69-year-old Matt Leffers was swimming in Serene Lakes, about 40 miles northwest of Lake Tahoe when he felt something sharp clamp onto his right calf. But the encounter didn't subside after a single bite.
Leffers estimated that he received at least 12 bites by two different otters, calling it the most "terrifying" experience of his life. He suffered about 40 puncture wounds while he was just 120 feet away from his family cabin.
"I really thought that I was going to die," Leffers told the Sacramento Bee. He was eventually able to make his way to shore, and to a medical facility for sutures.
A few months prior, two other swimmers reported attacks in the same area. In July, 41-year-old Crystal Finn went for a swim in the Middle Fork of the Feather River when she felt something bite her: "I felt something really sharp on my butt, and started screaming," she said in an interview with the Mercury News. The bites continued up to her leg. Then she spotted three otters just inches away from her face, and raced to the shoreline as quickly as possible. Finn reflected on the fact that her daughter was swimming nearby as well, and that she could have suffered an attack just as easily
Two days prior to Finn's encounter, otters bit another anonymous swimmer at Serene Lakes. The swimmer sustained 10 to 15 bites before she was able to climb aboard a paddleboard with a stranger to escape further harm.
Dr. Martin Rosengreen, the ER physician who treated the woman noted to SFGATE that "her wounds showed a little bit more of a defensive nature because they were going toward her face and she was trying to ward them off."
Rosengreen added that an animal bite from a river otter isn't just uncomfortable - it can cause serious long-term damage from infections or even rabies: "A bite, especially an animal bite, can cause a lot of damage to nerves, arteries and veins, muscles, and tendons, so we had to do a really thorough irrigation of the wounds to make sure they didn't get infected." The spate of encounters is unusual. Rosengreen told the site that he and his colleagues had never treated an otter attack prior to this year.
The river otter is a distant cousin to the sea otter, which has a deserved reputation for feistiness. One 5-year-old individual, Otter 841, became extremely well known after she began stealing surfboards in Santa Cruz. After 841 resurfaced with a pup, experts suggested that her hormonal pregnancy surges could have contributed to her unusually aggressive behavior.
In response to the latest river otter attacks, Peter Tira of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Bay Area's ABC 7 that despite river otters being a predatory species that's related to wolverine and badgers, attacks are extremely rare. The behavior could be related to an expansion of hunting territory, since the food supply in Serene Lakes is ample. River otters might also act out if they have young nearby or if they feel threatened.
Since several people in the Sierra region have been impacted by these rare incidents this year, Tira suggested that visitors to the area should exercise caution and give the animals plenty of space when spotted.
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