You Otter See This Kung Fu Bear Story – RedState

Fall is at our doorstep. Oh, I do know, most of you in the Lower 48 are still dealing with sizzling days and sunny skies, but right here in the Susitna Valley the week just past has been chilly and wet. The birches and poplars are dropping that early-summer brilliant inexperienced for the dusty, duller inexperienced of August, and the first traces of yellow are exhibiting in the leaves.

More on that in a bit. Next… Well, right here’s one thing you otter watch out for: Otters around Anchorage. Apparently, these aquatic meat Slinkies have found the appeal of the city (or suburban) thug life.

Wildlife officers are warning people to keep away from river otters after two latest assaults in Anchorage, including one in the Taku/Campbell space this week.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game urged people to watch out for aggressive animals in an alert Wednesday, a day after a man was injured when an otter approached him and a group of youngsters along Campbell Creek close to Taku Park.

Late last month, a little one on a paddleboard was bitten during an encounter with a group of 4 river otters on Sand Lake, according to the assertion. Fish and Game officers said otters also acted aggressively with a canine, which wasn’t injured, in the same space.

This appears moderately shocking, as otters are normally fairly inoffensive and even playful critters, although they have a tendency to give people a vast berth. When I used to be a child in Allamakee County, Iowa, we’d see them now and again along Bear Creek, which flowed through my of us’ property. I can bear in mind one late winter when they made a slide on a steep bank of the creek, and three of them, if reminiscence serves, would slide down, run back up the bank, and slide down again. It was a lot of enjoyable to watch them.

These Anchorage otters are apparently less playful.

River otters are discovered throughout Anchorage’s lakes and streams, often in teams, and might be territorial, biologists say. They can journey both overland and by utilizing Anchorage’s related our bodies of water.

Fish and Game officers said in Wednesday’s assertion that that they had few particulars about the otters concerned in the encounter this week, as properly as their group composition.

Alaska Man rating: 5 aquatic meat Slinkies. They’re just doing what they do.

Read More: Alaska Man Monday: Fat Bears, and Bears Opening Truck Doors – Also, Auroras

Now then, right here’s another fascinating Alaska critter story, this one out of Kodiak Island. This gutsy girl repelled a charging brown bear, not with pepper spray, not with a firearm, but with jiu-jitsu. 

Yes, actually.

While strolling her canine Vesper on a routine weekly route close to Bells Flats — a small neighborhood about 10 miles from the city of Kodiak — on Aug. 18, (Katelynn) Lane out of the blue discovered herself in a life-or-death confrontation next to a salmon stream.

Armed with no deterrents, she tried customary bear security protocols by making noise and standing her ground.

But when the sow saved barreling toward her, Lane made the choice to scramble up a vertical hill. It was during this climb that her canine Vesper intervened, momentarily distracting the brown bear long enough for Lane to reposition herself.

I do know I said kung fu in the headline. Kung fu is funnier. Anyway, the martial arts tactic labored:

“You use one leg to kind of block and you kick with the other leg. I don’t know if that was what made that happen or if that was entirely instinctual, but if a person wanted to attribute it to some sort of training, then I suppose that would be it.”

As the bear returned to the hill, it grabbed Lane’s proper leg. Lying on her back with her toes pointed downslope, Lane used the leverage to ship a defensive kick immediately to the bear’s face, halting the encounter.

Of course, Ms. Lane was lucky certainly. She in all probability startled the bear, who was more involved about getting her cubs away than urgent home an assault. But that kick to the snoot could have been persuasive. Bears have very delicate noses, and not just where their sense of odor is worried. If you’ve got to battle a bear, direct your blows on its nostril, particularly since the remaining of a enormous Kodiak brown bear is just about bulletproof.

Alaska Man rating: 5 bears with sore noses.

Read More: Alaska Man Monday: Leftovers and Fat Bears

In closing, let’s discuss about firewood, particularly the virtues and shortcomings of varied varieties of range wooden.

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