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Usually it’s the big boys we think about fighting in the wild.
A grizzly after an elk calf, a wolverine after a reindeer, or some bull Moose battling it out. But, these little creatures of the river have to do just as much to survive. It’s not usually the smaller wildlife that you expect to be in these types of battles, but we can’t forget it happens too.
River otters are one of the coolest creatures out there. The largest member of the weasel family, they are stone cold killers too.
In this video, filmed somewhere in Wisconsin, the river otter swims around checking out the scene. Eventually it makes its way to the rear end of the snapping turtle and takes a nip. The turtle obviously doesn’t appreciate it and takes a good snap.
The otter starts going hard at the turtle trying to dig at its belly near the rear end staying as far away from the turtles mouth as possible.
This clearly ain’t his first rodeo. The otter knows to stay clear of the turtles snap and use its lack of movement to its advantage.
As much as the turtle tries to fight it really never stood a chance. He kicks and bites but the otter is to fast and smart. Every time the turtle gets his legs underneath him the otter flips him again.
It is always cool watching otters because of how intelligent (and sneaky ferocious) they are.
The otter gets the turtle flips directly on its back and gets a good grip on a soft spot. It drags it over to the other side in the weeds and has itself a good meal.
I guess it must have been good too because the video ends with the otter coming for seconds the next day.
Here’s the account from the person behind the camera:
“I saw a rustling in the thick weeds when I was out in our lake. After 20 minutes I saw an otter pop its head up. For the next 40 minutes I waited patiently for the otter to come out in open water.
I could hear sounds like it was crunching on bones so I knew it wasn’t feeding on fish. When it finally came out in the open I knew the crunching sound was the otter biting and chewing the plastron of the the turtle to get into the intestines. This must be a delicacy for an otter.”
I really would have thought a snapping turtle would have fared slightly better, but hey, the more ya know.
A grizzly after an elk calf, a wolverine after a reindeer, or some bull Moose battling it out. But, these little creatures of the river have to do just as much to survive. It’s not usually the smaller wildlife that you expect to be in these types of battles, but we can’t forget it happens too.
River otters are one of the coolest creatures out there. The largest member of the weasel family, they are stone cold killers too.
In this video, filmed somewhere in Wisconsin, the river otter swims around checking out the scene. Eventually it makes its way to the rear end of the snapping turtle and takes a nip. The turtle obviously doesn’t appreciate it and takes a good snap.
The otter starts going hard at the turtle trying to dig at its belly near the rear end staying as far away from the turtles mouth as possible.
This clearly ain’t his first rodeo. The otter knows to stay clear of the turtles snap and use its lack of movement to its advantage.
As much as the turtle tries to fight it really never stood a chance. He kicks and bites but the otter is to fast and smart. Every time the turtle gets his legs underneath him the otter flips him again.
It is always cool watching otters because of how intelligent (and sneaky ferocious) they are.
The otter gets the turtle flips directly on its back and gets a good grip on a soft spot. It drags it over to the other side in the weeds and has itself a good meal.
I guess it must have been good too because the video ends with the otter coming for seconds the next day.
Here’s the account from the person behind the camera:
“I saw a rustling in the thick weeds when I was out in our lake. After 20 minutes I saw an otter pop its head up. For the next 40 minutes I waited patiently for the otter to come out in open water.
I could hear sounds like it was crunching on bones so I knew it wasn’t feeding on fish. When it finally came out in the open I knew the crunching sound was the otter biting and chewing the plastron of the the turtle to get into the intestines. This must be a delicacy for an otter.”
I really would have thought a snapping turtle would have fared slightly better, but hey, the more ya know.