Pregnant otter steals and gnaws at man’s surfboard

An unfortunate surfer has had been filmed in a tense standoff as he tried to reclaim his surfboard from an unlikely thief.

An unfortunate US surfer has had been filmed having his surfboard captured by an unexpected invader on California’s central coast.

A hilarious five-minute video shot on Wednesday shows Santa Cruz surfer Nick Ericksen fall victim to a surfboard thief – in the form of a pregnant otter.

The grouchy animal is shown commandeering the man’s board with all attempts to get it back met with vicious snarling from the mum-to-be.

The otter commandeers the surfboard. Picture: Chad Underhill-Meras

And the standoff between them begins. Picture: Chad Underhill-Meras

“[Nick] had a real case of the Mondays yesterday,” Chad Underhill-Meras wrote on Instagram.

“A pregnant otter stole his surfboard, starts gnawing on it, and they had a standoff.”

Another surfer eventually came to Mr Erickson’s aid, pulling the board away from the animal, much to the displeasure of the otter which then had a swimming race with the surfer as both tried to get to the board.

“At the end he gets a little help to get his board back, almost attacked at a couple points, then gets chased in like a true local,” Mr Underhill-Meras wrote.

Wildlife blog Wild Explained said while otters are cute and entertaining to watch, they’re far from friendly.

Nick Ericksen quickly paddled to shore once he got hold of his board. Picture: Chad Underhill-Meras

“Otters aren’t nice and friendly towards other species and may even be aggressive in some cases,” it says.

“Otters are not friendly to humans.

“At first, they may look sweet. But don’t let this fool you; they are wild animals. And just like any other wild carnivores, they are not very friendly.

“Still, it’s very hard to spot one in the wild as they tend to avoid being near people.”