A river otter attacked and bit up a teenage girl's leg after she may have gotten between the animal and its babies.
Kierra Clark, 13, was swimming in a Wash. river when she somehow upset a resident otter, Katu.com reported.
"At first it felt like somebody was just, like, grabbing onto my leg with their nails, and then it felt like somebody was like stabbing me kind of," Clark said. "It was probably one of the scariest things ever."
Clark's grandparents and neighbor had been watching the incident, and pulled her out of the water.
"I could see she had blood streaming down her leg," Clark's grandmother, Arlita Schlecht, said. "[It was like] a scene out of 'Jaws.'"
"All of a sudden I see it coming right after her, and thought 'Oh she's not playing,'" Fred Palmer, who witnessed the attack, said.
Residents who have lived by the river for sixty years said they had never seen an otter attack a person that way before.
"I didn't really know what was in the water at first, so that was like the worst thing ever because that's like my biggest fear is to be attacked in the water," Clark said.
The teenager was sent to the hospital with several bite and scratch wounds on her leg. She got a tetanus shot, and hopes to continue swimming after she heals.
"You otter be careful when swimming," Clark's grandmother posted on the family chalkboard, as a reminder of the incident.
River otters are playful creatures, and enjoy playing games within their groups, Wildlife Defenders reported.
The animal's social groups tend to consist of adult females and their pups. Males may form their own groups.
Otters' mating season usually runs from December to April, they have a litter size of about two or three pups.
"I think the mother was just protecting what she thought was a threat to her babies," Clark's grandfather, Bob Schlecht, said, according to Katu. "I've never heard of it before. It's probably one in a million."
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