In 2013 a woman from Montana claimed she needed eight stitches to her head after being attacked by an otter while tubing on the Madison river. Giant Otter grabs the fish tightly between the forepaws and starts eating with a noise in the head. Chris told a local news channel the otters "just kept getting at our legs and our feet. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The two predators are such worthy foes, there's only one recorded case of a jaguar killing a giant otter. Unable to catch it, he went home to Hamburg empty-handed. They hunt for food both in the water such as fish and then also land creatures including small reptiles. As you watch the rippling, you see a furry mass slowly surface. That's a lot of killing power for an animal the size of a salad bowl. It lives only in the rivers and creeks of the Amazon, Orinoco, and La Plata river systems. Both the child and his grandmother were hospitalised and needed extensive medical treatment. It stops, and quickly swims to the shore near you. In 1909, zoo animal collector and naturalist Carl Hagenbeck (June 10, 1844 – April 14, 1913) recounted in his autobiography, Beasts and Men, how two separate individuals – a German named Hans Schomburgk and an English hunter – told him about a “huge monster, half elephant, half dragon,” which lived in the Congo swamps. The giant river otter. “I noticed blood all over their legs and their feet. They sat down and they were crying in pain,” Mr Whitney said. When the zoo cleaner saw the animal, she screamed and the six-foot-long giant otter pounced on her. It ... Duplaix speculated that piranhas may attack giant otters. Male giant otters can attain a length of 1.5-1.7m (4.9-5.6ft). “They're cute, and they're doing all their activities. Their long tail may add as much as 70cm (28in) to this body length. Otters rarely attack humans, but can sometimes be territorial, especially when they are protecting their babies. They were treated by staff at Shasta Regional Medical Center, who Mr Whitney said printed out an 'otter lineup' and asked the boys which one was the culprit. In terms of otters, the giant one has the shortest coat and its … Giant otter: Physical characteristics. Since appearing on local TV, the boys have been offering to sign ”ottergraphs“ for their friends. The Hagenbeck Zoo (Tierpark Hagenbeck) is named after Carl Hagenbeck, whose life and that of his son have been intertwined with the early history of modern cryptozoology. Chris and Jacob's injuries were less severe. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. This animal is amphibian and mainly terrestrial. In the Dilolo swamps, he heard tales of a similar creature which the natives called chimpekwe. An eight year old boy and his grandmother were also attacked by a four-feet long male otter while swimming in a river in Washington State in 2014. They are often mistaken for beavers though. A 2011 Oceanographic Environmental Research Society study of otter attacks found only 39 documented violent confrontations dating back to 1875. In the confrontation, the otters are seen periscoping in and out of the water, hesitating to cross the wetlands. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Otters can certainly harass Caiman though and have done so multiple times. In 1912, Hans Schomburgk returned to Liberia, and to the dismay of his critics, came back with five live pygmy hippos. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. The giant otter hunts in packs of four to ten adults and has a remarkable predatory instinct and unusual feeding habits. A passing army sergeant, Silvio Hollembach jumped in to rescue the child but was set upon himself. Attack of the Giant Otter An exhibition cleaner at Hamburg, Germany’s Hagenbeck Zoo has been hospitalized after being attacked by an escaped giant otter. Introduction to Otters. There are two cases of serious attacks on humans by giant otters. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. The family Mustelidae, or mustelids, (which also includes badgers, otters, and wolverines) is often referred to as the "weasel family". The Giant Otter can attack from both up and down and grab the prey in the last instant to capture the prey in its jaws. This animal catches its own food and consumes it immediately. Giant otter attack! Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Of smell, but this is not the end either. A giant otter, though can reach 1.7 meters in length and weigh about thirty kilograms at a muscular tail strength, endurance acute hearing and sharp eyes along with the great. The giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox) is a semiaquatic, carnivorous afrotherian mammal. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. The stealth and combined strength of a crocodile allows it to lie in the water undetected, before it strikes, drags its pray underwater, barrel rolls and dismembers it. The otters probably perceived the dog as a threat, biologist Dave Battle said. They are very inquisitive, and many of their calls are quite explosive in sound, so they appear angry when they are merely curious. Immediately after hunted they consume their prey, devouring it by the head and holding it … Even those traditionally seen as completely adorable. Hagenbeck established his zoological garden near Hamburg as the prototype of the modern open-air zoo in 1907. https: ... And I've seen a Caiman attack 3 Otters with their fish kill, easily dispatching them and wounding one as they all retreated. Females are smaller at 1-1.5m (3.3-4.9ft). An exhibition cleaner at Hamburg, Germany’s Hagenbeck Zoo has been hospitalized after being attacked by an escaped giant otter. These kings of the sea have 3,000 teeth with which to tear their pray to shreds. The giant otter or giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is a South American carnivorous mammal. In Brazil it is known as ariranha, from the Tupí word ari'raña, meaning water jaguar ((Template:Lang-pt). As a result, they cause on average 2million human deaths a year, making the insect one of the world's deadliest creatures. Otters rarely attack humans, but can be territorial. Excerpts from her personal experiences and field notes strengthen the narrative even more. The two boys had to be taken to hospital for rabies shots, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. This male giant otter confronted two jaguars with head movements, calls, and occasional jumps. “Just the whole body was wrapped around him.”. He died in hospital … The giant otter is large, gregarious, and diurnal. As water drips from it, you realize it's an otter with brown fur and long whiskers. Several videos of monkeys harassing sea otters in a zoo, culminating with a mass of otters drowning a monkey to the tune of O Fortuna. Most occurred in … The strength of a polar bear is enough to decapitate a human being with a single swipe of the paw. “We have no idea how the giant otter escaped,” zoo spokeswoman Eveline Dustersiek told Germany’s The Local. A weasel / ˈ w iː z əl / is a mammal of the genus Mustela of the family Mustelidae.The genus Mustela includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets and mink.Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bodies and short legs. Hagenbeck sent an expedition in 1909 to the Congo to search for the monster, but the effort was quickly aborted due to disease and hostile natives. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. The brute force of an elephant is unrivalled by any land mammal. They're very interesting to watch,” Battle said. Otters are adorable creatures that live both on land and in the water. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Giant otters attack either above or below the water holding the prey with their teeth strongly. And here's just some of the messed up things that the jerkiest of them have been known to do. The otter attacked the relatively young gator by biting it over the neck, ensuring it could not turn around and bite back. It might not be the most poisonous snake, but thanks to its unique spit and strike attack technique, the Asian Cobra is responsible for more human deaths than any other snake on the planet. Settlers, travellers and explorers wrongly believe they are under attack and shoot to defend themselves (as they believe). The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. A full-grown pygmy hippopotamus weighs only about 400 lb, a tenth of the weight of the average adult hippopotamus. The otter nearly killed the child and seriously injured the old woman when she tried to prise it off him. Each jellyfish has 60 tentacles each at 15 ft long. Behavior and conservation of the Amazon’s giant river otter. Jessica Groenendijk’s love for giant otters and their Amazon waterways makes her book, The Giant Otter, one of the finest on an animal species I have discovered. The giant otter is the longest species among mustelids although not the heaviest. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Joseph Menges, another naturalist, told Hagenbeck that “some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the brontosaurs,” lived in the swamps. Their bodies measured 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 meters) in length.1 Much like the mundane otter,3 these creatures … Chris Whitney, 13, and Jacob Savage, 14, had been jumping off rocks into the reservoir when between three and five animals attacked them, chasing them down a narrow arm of the lake as they swam for the shore. Giant Otter This South American otter is the world's largest, at some 6 feet long. The friends had injuries on their necks, legs, and feet, Chris' father Ryan Whitney told local media. Today, we usually know this information in terms of Mokele-mbembe. Beavers have attacked dogs at Anchorage's University Lake, but wildlife biologists said they were not aware of attacks by river otters. It is the longest member of the Mustelidae, or weasel family, with males being 4.9 and 5.6 ft long, and females, 3.3 and 4.9 ft, from head to base of tail. It was named after Lorenz Hagenbeck (1882-1956), the son of Carl Hagenbeck. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Photo by: Frank Hajek. Animals can be GIANT JERKS. Hans Schomburgk also recounted to Hagenbeck that hippopotamus were absent from Lake Bangweulu; the natives said this was because of the depredations of a monster which inhabited the lake. But, within the giant otter’s range (which is, unfortunately, rapidly shrinking), this is not the case. In their natural habitat, giant otters are apex predators, and while they primarily eat fish, they can and do take down caimans and anacondas. Weighing in around 16,000lb on average, they are responsible for around 500 human deaths each year. It was big, shiny and black, but the animal was clearly related to the hippopotamus, not the pig. On average, are 15ft long and 5,000lb, and can detect a drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. Adult giant otters living in family groups have no known serious natural predators, however there are some accounts of black caimans in Peru and yacare caimans in the Pantanal preying on giant otters. Based on this study, cougars have a canine BFQ of 118.8 and, for giant otters, it is 115.4, which is very similar. The Andean Wolf was first discovered with only a skin bought by German animal-dealer Lorenz Hagenbeck in Buenos Aires in 1926. An average giant otter will weigh between 22 and 32kg (49-71lbs). 03 Pocket pit bulls. “Somehow it must have pushed a hole through the fence, which is strange because the fence is metal.”. On the one hand, adult males are between 5 and 6 feet long and weigh between 70 and 99 pounds and on the other, females measure between 5 and 5 1/2 feet in length and weigh between 48 and 58 pounds. Giant otters were a monstrous variety of the mundane aquatic mammal of the same name.2 1 Description 2 Behavior 3 Ecology 3.1 Diet 3.2 Habitats 3.3 Relationships 4 Trivia 5 Appendix 5.1 Appearances 5.2 References Giant otters were both fast runners and fast swimmers. Facts about Sea Otter, Giant Otter, European Otter, African Otter and River Otter. All three names ar… Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? I just remember looking back at it and seeing it's teeth, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Family of otters attack two teenage boys swimming in California lake, Rare video shows wild sea otter giving birth, US aquarium trains otter to use inhaler after smoke from Seattle wildfires gives it asthma, Otter launches 'bloody' attack on restaurant, leaves owner 'terrified', eight year old boy and his grandmother were also attacked, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. They had to be taken to hospital for rabies shots. Early travelers' reports describe noisy groups surrounding explorers' boats, but little scientific information was available on the species until Duplaix's groundbreaking work in the late 1970s. Each frog produces enough of the toxin to kill 10 humans. The giant otter is the longest of the otter species but shares a similar weight with the sea otter. Habitat and Range . In Spanish, river wolf (Spanish: [lobo de río] error: {{lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) and water dog (Spanish: [perro de agua] error: {{lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) are used occasionally, though the latter has many other meanings) and may have been more common in the reports of explorers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The jaguar decided to plunge and managed to grab the baby with a swift bite. It floats on its back, looking at the banks of the river for predators, when it suddenly seems to notice you. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. The Andean Wolf, or Hagenbeck’s Wolf is an unsubstantited wolf-like canid, reportedly from the Andes. “[The otter] had him by the back of his head and it was holding him down,” Dean Springer, the boy’s great-uncle, told local media. RIP Ace: Super Pitbull Killed In Horror Attack. However, to … The giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is a South American carnivorous mammal. A giant otter is a very social animal that lives in large family groups. 04 ... Once the jaguar had noticed the giant otters from the river bank, it slowly approached them - its eyes fixated on one of the youngest members of the family. When the water level is low, the otters need to adjust or change their den location—lest they and their young become vulnerable to attacks by jaguars. They might look cute, but the backs of the Amazonian poison dart frog ooze a slimy neurotoxin to keep predators away. Aside from human beings, of course. Whilst the boy escaped Sgt Hollembach was attacked by the 6 otters resulting in more than a hundred bites. Sydney Sainsbury of West Yellowstone was 'viciously' attacked by an otter on July 9, leaving her needing serious medical attention, including an arm brace and eight stitches to … The giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is a South American carnivorous mammal. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. "There was one that kept attacking us no matter what we did. The giant otter has a handful of other names. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. The widely publicized incident led to a popular belief in Brazil that giant otters can attack and capsize a canoe and tear its occupants to pieces, though no such thing has ever happened. It is the only species in the genus Potamogale. And the problem is, they tend to do so as a herd. Otters. It lives in streams, wetlands and slow flowing larger rivers. A family of otters attacked two teenage boys who were swimming in Shasta Lake, California, on Sunday morning. The tail adds another 28 inches to the total body length. The attack happened June 2, 2012, as the zoo cleaner, whose name was not reported, scrubbed benches, Germany media reported Friday, June 8, 2012. These big cats are ruthlessly agile, armed with razor-sharp teeth and talons and near-perfect hunters. I just remember looking back at it and seeing it's teeth,” he said. Giant otters are very big, very noisy and move in large groups. A family of otters attacked two teenage boys who were swimming in Shasta Lake, California, on Sunday morning. There remains no good explanation for the escape and sudden appearance of the otter. The author’s expertise in field observation and research are clear in the writing that is at once informative and accessible. It is found in the main rainforest block of central Africa from Nigeria to Zambia, with a few isolated populations in Kenya and Uganda. In 1909, Hagenbeck sent German explorer Hans Schomburgk to Liberia to check on rumors about a “giant black pig.” After two years of jungle pursuit, Schomburgk finally spotted the animal 30 ft in front of him. Concern over this endangered species has since generated a body of research. Tiny but deadly, mosquitoes carry and transfer malaria causing parasites to humans. The first occurred in Brasilia zoo in 1977 when a 13 year old boy fell into the otter enclosure. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. Cape Buffalos charge head-on with their razor-sharp horns when confronted with a predator - all 1,500lb of them. 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