Science & Environment

Alaska Officials On The Hunt For Aggressive Otter Group After Attacks

Wildlife officers in Anchorage, Alaska, have issued a warning about aggressive otters after three reported assaults on people and pets.

On Friday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game implored town’s residents to “be alert around local lakes and rivers” after a spate of incidents that will or could not have concerned the identical otter group:

  • On Sept. 1, a river otter bit 9-year-old Ayden Fernandez at a duck pond in East Anchorage. Ayden’s mom, Tiffany, showed the Anchorage Daily News a video wherein one otter broke away from a gaggle and chased her two sons and their associates. The kids all ran, however the otter caught as much as Ayden, biting him on each legs, his foot and his again as he fell to the bottom.

  • This week, a lady needed to rescue her canine from what the Fish and Game Department described as a “similar group of river otters” on the metropolis’s University Lake, and wound up getting bitten herself.

  • A river otter bit a special canine at University Lake the identical day that the lady was bitten.

The Fish and Game Department’s assertion stated, “It is possible that the same group of river otters were responsible,” noting that river otters can journey to completely different areas over each land and water.

River otters.

GarysFRP by way of Getty Images

If discovered, the otters’ destiny is probably going grim. The division famous it must “remove” them from the world and that relocation could be “problematic” as a result of their demonstrated harmful habits. Any otters killed will even be examined for rabies. (Animals must be dead to be examined for rabies as a result of the check requires mind tissue samples.)

The division famous, nevertheless, that officers might be cautious solely to take away otters exhibiting unusually aggressive habits.

In November 2019, an otter attacked a canine at Anchorage’s University Lake, although the canine’s proprietor didn’t get a transparent sufficient glimpse to inform if the aquatic aggressor was an otter or a beaver.

“They made a beeline through the water,” Labradoodle proprietor Carol Stratton told local news station KTUU on the time. “I called for [my dog] and bam. They pulled her under at least twice. It was horrifying.”

And in October 2019, 4 otters went after a canine at a special lake in Anchorage, biting and pulling a 50-pound husky combine underneath the floor, the canine’s proprietor told Alaska Public Media. Ultimately, the proprietor needed to soar into the water to combat off the otters.




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