Actress Attacked By Otters In Northern California

TRUCKEE, CA — Beware of the otters.

Two river otter attacks recently reported in the Tahoe area are among several instances of the mammals menacing aquatic enthusiasts this summer in the western U.S.

“I felt something really sharp on my butt, and started screaming,” Crystal Finn, an actress who has appeared on “Succession” and performed with Debra Messing, told The Mercury News, recalling her July 11 encounter in the Feather River’s Middle Fork.

Three otters attacked Finn, she told the newspaper, biting her leg.

“They were all coming for me,” she said to the Mercury. “It seemed rather orchestrated.”

Two days prior, a swimmer suffered 10-15 bites at Serene Lakes, the outlet reported.

The women, who had the first otter bites Tahoe Forest Hospital had seen in years, received rabies treatments and antibiotics, according to the Mercury.

“After the first otter attack I thought, ‘Wow that was kind of special’ and then two days later there was another one,” Dr. Martin Rosengreen, who works in the emergency room at the hospital, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Tahoe area otters aren’t the only ones who’ve been coming after swimmers. A river otter injured three women floating on inner tubes Aug. 2 on the Jefferson River in southern Montana. One of the victims had to be airlifted to a hospital.

In July, a sea otter made headlines after footage of the animal biting surfboards and startling surfers in Santa Cruz circulated on social media.

The recent otter aggression is unusual, Megan Isadore, executive director for the River Otter Ecology Project, told the Mercury.

“When otters attack, it’s most often because they have young nearby and feel threatened,” she said to the newspaper.