Woman Brutally Attacked by Wild Otter During Swim in Lake Tahoe

A peaceful morning swim in Lake Tahoe turned into a terrifying fight for survival when a wild otter allegedly launched a “relentless” attack on a veteran swimmer — leaving her covered in blood and needing 38 stitches.

Swim instructor Lynnette Bellin, of Reno, Nevada, said she was swimming near Hidden Beach in Incline Village around 8 a.m. Sunday when she suddenly felt something grab her leg beneath the water.

At first, Bellin thought another person had touched her.

Then she looked down.

It was an otter.

“It kept coming at me with teeth and claws,” Bellin recalled in a harrowing Instagram post. “I tried to push it away but this thing was relentless.”

Bellin said she had already been swimming for about 30 minutes when the attack began.

She desperately tried to escape by reaching a nearby rock, but the animal allegedly followed her out of the water and continued attacking.

“I swear it was a 5-minute attack!” she wrote. “I was yelling and pushing and it just kept coming for me.”

Bellin eventually managed to scramble onto a larger rock, finally putting some distance between herself and the animal.

But the ordeal wasn’t over.

She said the otter continued circling the area, forcing her to climb over a fence and walk barefoot along the East Shore Bike Trail while bleeding from multiple wounds.

Video posted after the attack showed Bellin with bloodied hands and scratches across her face, legs and feet.

The injuries were severe enough that witnesses called for emergency help, bringing three police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance to the scene.

Bellin, who has been swimming in Lake Tahoe for approximately 25 years, was later treated with 38 stitches and received rabies shots as a precaution.

She said a game warden later came to her home to take a report and told her wildlife officials were searching the area by boat with plans to trap the otter.

The attack has now left Bellin questioning whether she can return to the water she has loved for decades.

“The saddest part of this is swimming in Tahoe is my favorite thing to do that brings me so much peace,” she said. “And now I’m afraid to get back in.”

Bellin said the people she spoke with after the incident had never heard of an otter attacking someone in Lake Tahoe.

Wildlife officials say otter sightings have become more common in the region, however.

Kenzie Margiott, a public information officer for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, told KCRA that the local otter population has been growing over roughly the past 15 years.

Experts stressed that violent encounters between otters and people remain unusual.

Megan Isadore, executive director of the River Otter Ecology Project, told CBS News that Bellin may have unknowingly gotten too close to a mother otter protecting her young.

“They don’t know what we’re doing. They don’t know why we’re there,” Isadore explained. “They can be frightened of us. They’re usually not after us.”

For Bellin, however, the rare encounter became a nightmare she won’t soon forget — turning one of her favorite places into somewhere she is now afraid to swim.