An unsuspecting woman has described the bizarre moment she was ambushed by an otter while cheering on marathon runners.
Erin Hogston, 45, was supporting her friends running the Tobacco Road Marathon on Sunday in Cary, North Carolina, when she was attacked.
She had found a viewing spot near a park and was moving further up the trail when she heard a noise coming from the bushes.
'It was a beautiful morning, beautiful weather, and all of a sudden I hear a [rustling] in the bushes behind me,' Hogston said in a video posted to Facebook.
'An otter, out of nowhere, just comes out of the woodwork and just attacks me.'
Hogston, who is a runner herself and previously qualified for the Olympic trials in 2020 according to her social media, fled for her life but tripped.
'I was running as fast as I could, faster than my legs could carry me, and I fell. I have scratches and cuts and bruises all over me, and [the otter] bit me on my ankle, and it broke the skin too, so I gotta go get rabies shots,' she said.
She captured a video of the otter running across the road after it attacked her. 'Holy s*,' Hogston said as the otter passed by.
Hogston also thanked a runner who helped her escape the otter's clutches.
'Thank you for shooing it away and for letting everybody else know that a spectator got attacked by an otter because I honestly think nobody would believe me,' she said.
In an update on Wednesday, Hogston said she went to the doctor's office for her seventh post-rabies vaccine shot.
Hogston told WECT the medical care has cost her thousands of dollars, and everyone she tells about the squabble is shocked.
'I had to wait for a few hours in the ER, and when I checked in, they were like "you got bit by what?"' she said. 'I was like "an otter." They said, "Well, that's a first."
'Everybody was like "wow, we thought they were nice, we thought they were cute." I don't know, I don't see anything cute about otters, especially now.'
There have been only 59 documented otter attacks worldwide since 1875, and only one other in North Carolina, according to the local news station.
'Otters, as a general rule, are not aggressive around humans,' North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission biologist Falyn Owens told the outlet.
Hogston was watching her friends run the marathon near a park when she heard a noise coming from the bushes
Hogston said she had to get seven rabies shots after the otter bit her ankle, and that she is covered in cuts and bruises after the attack
'Most people enjoy having them around, so a situation like this is extremely unusual.'
Hogston drove more than two hours from her home to cheer on her friends and said the situation feels almost unbelievable.
'I just wanted to cheer them on, I got up really early,' she said. 'I walked out a little further from the aid station onto the trail just because I wanted to surprise them and I'd be easy to see.
'At first I was like "this is a bear." It sounded huge; I was like "oh God, I need to get away."'
She added, 'Be aware of your surroundings. You never know what's going to be out on those trails.'
The Daily Mail has contacted Hogston, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Tobacco Road Marathon for comment.