Posted on 07/16/2012 3:23:04 PM PDT by TurboZamboni
ANOKA, Minn.A veteran triathlete had to get rabies shots after she was attacked and bitten 25 times by an otter in a northern Minnesota lake. Leah Prudhomme, 33, of Anoka, was doing a regular 1.5-mile training swim in Island Lake, 17 miles north of Duluth, on Wednesday evening. As she passed by a bog on the last stretch, she felt something bite her ankle to the bone: an otter. She screamed for help as her father and young children watched from the shore.
Prudhomme sustained 25 bitessome more than 2 inches deepbefore her father could rescue her in a boat about seven minutes later.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otter_Tail_County,_Minnesota
on teh otter hand...
I had no idea that otters bite....they look so cute in the water!
Prudhomme said she’s thankful she wore her wet suit, which was shredded in the attack but likely saved her from more extensive injuries.
Do otters get rabid maybe?
Big, fast water weasels with huge teeth. I think I remember a croc hunter episode where they had to move otters from the enclosure, doing it gave them more problems than the crocs, they are very fast.
Freegards
“The rare attack baffled experts who surmise the otter had rabies...”
In humans, one of the signs of rabies is hydrophobia, fear of water. So, would a rabid otter even go near the lake?
Kayaking in the Boundary Waters, I was nearly attacked by an otter in a dispute over fish I had on a keeper trailing in the water. The little bugger was growling or snarling or whatever it is that otters do in mid-lake in heavy chop. He seemed to find my paddle formidable and left - to my relief. I didn’t relish a tangle with a 25 pound critter 6” from the surface of the water in whitecap water in the middle of a lake.
Of course, had the little creep pushed the matter, I had a M-6 Scout under deck and would’ve given him a dose of lead.
IIRC, any mammal can become rabid.
I have become rabid several times, back in my hard drinking days.
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