Lewiston River Otter Warning
by Gary Gage
The week before our Fall Follies field trial a big family of river
otters in the birling pond by one of the baseball parks in North Lewiston
viciously attacked my shorthair Lil as she was retrieving way out in
the middle of the pond. Spotting her from the outlet stream, they swam
out like a wolfpack & grabbed ahold her head, neck, base of her ears
& her back, & her legs -- dragging her under for frighteningly
long stretches 3 or 4 times -- & I feared I'd lost her. She barely
made it to shore cut up pretty badly. River otters are surprisingly big
-- one still had a grip on the back of her neck as I hoisted her up onto
the bank -- it was close to 4 feet long nose to tail, & must've weighed
25-35 lbs.
Idaho F&G stocks the pond with trout for youth fishing, & that
family of otters has grown accustomed to people & become territorial...
& dangerous. F&G won't consider relocating them because
they're a protected species!.. (maybe with colder weather little kids won't
continue to wade out there fishing).
Harry was also swimming out for the same retrieve, but the otters cut
Lil out like a calf from a herd. Their attack was prolonged & I was
badly shaken as I finally hoisted her ashore nearly drowned, cut up &
bleeding. I wildly looked around for Harry, suddenly remembering he could
still be in jeopardy... but there he was, sitting nearby on the bank with
the retrieve in his mouth! While I was jumping up & down screaming for Lil to keep desperately resurfacing
& battling for shore, Harry's main concern was beating that wolfpack
to the retrieve.