A Nevada swim instructor said years of water confidence helped save her after a river otter attacked her during an open-water swim near Lake Tahoe, leaving her bloodied and requiring 38 stitches.
The frightening escape turned a familiar route into a painful reminder that even popular recreation spots are still wildlife habitat.
Here's what to know
About 30 minutes into a swim near Hidden Beach on Lake Tahoe's east shore, within Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park, Lynnette Bellin, an infant swimming resource instructor, said something clamped onto her leg, the Los Angeles Times reported. Bellin said it was a river otter that kept attacking as she tried to get away.
"I thought it was a person until I saw the otter, and then it kept coming at me with teeth and claws," Bellin said on Instagram. "I tried to push it away, but this thing was relentless."
When Bellin was trying to get onto the rocks, she repeatedly slipped until she finally reached boulders about 10 feet above the lake. The otter backed off there, and she later climbed over a fence to the East Shore Bike Trail before walking barefoot roughly three-quarters of a mile to the beach.
In footage shared after the attack, Bellin can be seen in a bright pink long-sleeve sun top with a swim cap and swimsuit bottoms, blood splashed across her clothing. She later said the injuries included cuts to her nose, face, hand, and legs, and that she needed 38 stitches in all, including 22 in her swollen right foot.
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More background
Although attacks on people are rare, Nevada wildlife officials say river otters inhabit Lake Tahoe as well as waterways that run to Pyramid Lake through the Truckee River, according to the Los Angeles Times. That means swimmers, paddlers, and beachgoers are sharing space with a predator that generally avoids humans.
By the time Nevada Department of Wildlife staff searched the area, the otter was no longer there, Kenzie Margiott, a spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said, leaving officials unable to say what prompted the aggression. "Without locating and examining the animal," she said, "we can't determine what may have caused the reported aggressive behavior."
Margiott said an otter "may act defensively if it feels threatened [or] cornered, protecting their pups and/or defending their hunting territory." Bellin's usual swim route ran between Hidden Beach and Sand Harbor, reflecting a dynamic BBC Future has explored.
What can be done?
Margiott said the Nevada Department of Wildlife was alerted just before 10 a.m. and sent staff to check whether the otter was still nearby or behaving abnormally. But the animal had already disappeared, leaving officials without a way to examine it.
In an interview with KRON4 in San Francisco, Bellin said, "As I was being attacked, being a confident swimmer, I didn't have to consciously think about my breath control or how to stay above water. [A]ll I had to do was think about fending off this animal."
Because staying afloat and controlling her breathing were automatic, she said, she could focus on escaping instead of basic survival in the lake. Bellin has described swimming as a "critical life skill," and said the attack reinforced the importance of water competency when something goes wrong without warning.
Where can I learn more?
Otters are usually elusive, but swimmers and other people on the water still cross paths with wildlife in unpredictable ways. These stories follow river otters in recovering habitats, rescue work for injured otters, and other close calls on the water.
• Across Baltimore and Norfolk, river otters are back in urban waterways they once abandoned.
• In Florida, a search and rescue otter joined underwater recovery crews as part of the team.
• After a vehicle strike, USFWS crews rushed an orphaned river otter into rehabilitation.
• Off California's Dillon Beach, a surfer said a great white hit his board without biting.
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