A swim instructor from Reno, Nevada, needed 38 stitches after being attacked by an otter while on her regular Sunday swim in Lake Tahoe. Lynnette Bellin, who has swum in the lake for 25 years, said she had no idea otters lived there until the animal latched onto her roughly 30 minutes into her swim, in what she described as a five-minute ordeal.

Bellin initially thought a person was pulling on her before realising she was being bitten and clawed. Fighting back only made the otter more aggressive, and she was eventually forced to scramble onto rocks and climb a fence to reach a bike trail, walking back barefoot and bleeding. She was met by police, firefighters and an ambulance, then drove herself to hospital, where she received 38 stitches and rabies shots.