Charged by an Otter!

[Lunker]

Never know what you will run into while enjoying the outdoors.

I was pheasant hunting a WPA about an hour west of the cities today. The dog was working the cattails about 20 yards in front of me as I walked down a small frozen drainage ditch in between two ponds. Suddenly a very large otter comes tumbling out of the weeds onto the frozen ditch in between myself and the dog, and heads right at me. It was alternating between running and sliding right at me and making a growling noise.

At first I was just amused, but then a bit apprehensive as it did not change course. As I raised my shotgun I was thinking 3 thoughts simultaneously ..." do otters carry rabies?", am I really going to have to shoot a protected animal on federal property?", and "who is going to believe me that I was defending myself against an otter!?"

Thankfully at less than 5 ft from my feet it veered off into the weeds, went around me, and then back out on the ice and along the same path. Evidently I was just in between him and his destination.

It took no little bit of yelling to keep the dog from tackling the otter, but thankfully he listened(I think he might have lost, it was a big otter!)

I love hunting. Never know what you're going to see.

[RumRiverRat]

IT WAS COMING RIGHT FOR ME!!!!!!!!

[Lunker]

And yes, I thought of the south park hunting episode afterward.lol

[icehousebob]

Lunker, when I saw the title of your post, I was going to shout,IMPOSSIBLE!!,otters don't have credit cards. Yeah, I think your dog might have had his hands full if he'd tackled a full grown otter. They're built too low to the ground for a dog to attack from underneath.

[john.wells]

ALL mammals can contract rabies, for one, and for two- you have the right to self defense. Thankfully, the outcome was good for the both of you.

[JeffB]

I suppose you even had a harder time justifying shooting since your dog was right behind the otter. At least it makes for a good story to tell.

[T.O.W]

Good story and a great visual.

[JayinMN]

A guy here in Hibbing a few years ago was running his dogs along side his atv. The dogs went down to a pond and one dog didn't come back up with the other one. Then he heard yelping and ran down to see what was happening. An otter had gotten a hold of his dog, drug it out into the water and was trying to drowned it. His dog is a large chow/shepherd mix. I would say at least 75 pounds. The guy went in after the otter with a pocket knife to save his dogs life. He swam out and managed to save the dog by stabbing the otter a few times. The otter let go of the dog and turned on him. It chewed his arms up really good. Besides the rabies shots he also had to be on some serious antibiotics for infection from the bite and stagnant water it was in. He said he is not so sure he would do it again. My mom works with him and his arms are full of scars.

This summer I was kayaking by myself and I came upon 2 otters on a narrow river. It was right after the lady in Wisconsin got bit by one. Boy did I get nervous seeing as they could easily get into my kayak. Thankfully they went into a hole in the river bank and never came out. They are one critter you don't want to be on the bad side of.

[deadeye]

Good story. Glad that didn't end bad for any party involved.

They can get pretty nasty. Usually they will steer clear though. I have had the opportunity to watch them quite a bit and they make some really horrible sounds but for the most part stay away. Of course if they are threatened its tough to say what they will do. They are part of the weasel family which includes things like pine martins and wolverines so they do have a nasty family temperment sometimes. I did hear that a group up in the bwcaw had otters challenge their canoe. That would be a scary deal for sure.

[Weed Shark]

I was duck hunting with a buddy and his 13 year old golden retriever at his shack in Manitoba. An otter began trying to pull our Can decoys under, hitting them hard from underneath like "Jaws." We were spread out on a cattail point. The dog was in the canoe. We were chuckling until we heard the dog yelp. The otter had come out of the water onto the point. My friend yelled loudly and it jumped into the water, but u-turned and was eyeing him from the water edge, just a few feet away. A shotgun blast scared it off. We found no wounds on the dog. It must have yelped out of surprise. We were a little nervous sending the old dog out to retrieve birds after that.

The next day we were setting up decoys in the dark at a location not far away from the previous day. My friend says, "Its ba-aaack." I'm in the front of the canoe, the dog is behind me. My only light is on my cap bill. The otter surfaces 6 inches from the canoe, under my right elbow and looks at me a few seconds. I hit it hard on the nose with my paddle, and it doesn't move. I stab it harder with the paddle end pushing it underwater. I can feel it briefly, and it disappears. My buddy, imagining an otter crawling up his neck from the back of the canoe quickly suggested we back out of there and uncase a gun. We never saw it again.

"Funny, playful, cute otter" movies just aren't the same for me. My three boys still like to tease me about otters.