Crystal Finn from “Succession” was attacked by river otters
Otters are best known for holding hands and collecting rocks, but the fluffy carnivores are also occasionally known for attacking and biting humans.
Just ask Succession actress Crystal Finn.
She was attacked by otters in July along the Feather River near Plumas National Forest in Northern California.
“I felt something on my butt and my leg,” she told the San Francisco Chronicles this week. “I started looking around and screaming [the otters] appeared right in front of me. Then they dived and attacked me again.”
The Broadway actor, who appeared in Fox’s “The Tick” and played Lauren Pawson in the final season of HBO’s “Succession,” received medical treatment for the bites at a nearby hospital.
“I could see the bites on my legs and I knew I had been bitten on the butt — that was the worst part but I couldn’t see it,” she said. “The bites really hurt.”
Finn wasn’t sure what attacked her at first, but she soon spotted the perpetrators in the river.
“I saw these three little heads appear right in front of me,” she said in an interview with the Mercury News. “But I was so disoriented. Seeing otters – it just didn’t work out at first.”
As she swam to safety after the first otter bites, the creatures continued to attack her legs.
The power of an otter bite was estimated at 615 pounds per square inchwhile the bite force of an average person is around 162 pounds per square inch.
“They were all looking for me,” Finn said. “It seemed more orchestrated. And once I was out there, they seemed happy to bob along and continue on their way.”
Such interactions with otters are rare, but have been reported more frequently in recent weeks.
At Serene Lakes, also in Northern California, northwest of Lake Tahoe, was another swimmer attacked by otters and required emergency medical care. The episode happened days before Finn was attacked.
The Times recently reported on an “aggressive sea otter” terrorizing surfers in Santa Cruz this summer.
But the attacks aren’t just limited to the Golden State. Earlier this month, three women in southern Montana were attacked by at least one river otter Associated Press. One woman’s injuries were so severe she had to be flown out of the river.
“If I had seen it [the otters]”I don’t think it would have made me think,” Finn told the Chronicle. “I would have thought, ‘Oh, those cute river otters.’ … It would have been much worse.”
