A swimmer at Lake Tahoe in Nevada was bitten by a river otter in an incident that left her needing hospital treatment and 38 stitches for her wounds, as well as rabies shots, local media have reported.
Lynnette Bellin from Reno was swimming near Hidden beach on the Nevada side of the popular tourist attraction on Sunday when she was attacked by the creature.
Attack details
“I just felt something grab me by my leg and pull me under. And it was so powerful. It felt like it was a human,” Bellin told the KCRA3 television news station.
“This otter just started coming after me, teeth and claws, and, you know, my only thought was like, I got to get away from this. But it kept following me,” she added. “I tried to swim away from it at one point and it was just attacking my feet.”
Response and advice
Bellin said she was eventually able to scramble out of the lake onto some rocks and make it to a hiking trail. First responders then took her to hospital for medical assistance.
Otter attacks are rare, though wildlife officials always advise people to give the wild animals distance if they see them. This is especially true in late summer when otters may be defending their young. “It’s very rare for us to see something like this,” Kenzie Margiott, a spokesperson for the Nevada department of wildlife, told KCRA3.
Second incident in a month
This is the second otter attack at Tahoe in a month. South Tahoe Now reported that earlier in August a man was attacked by an otter on the California side of the lake near Pope beach. That swimmer also ended up in hospital with eight bite wounds.
