Beaver Attacks On The Rise (Videos)

Some poor chap was on his way to a fishing trip near Lake Shestakov, Belarus with a couple of pals. He spotted a friendly little beaver at the side of the road and nipped out to take a photo. All sounds lovely so far, a nice country drive with chums, a bit of nature-watch, Bill Oddie would be proud.

Unfortunately, this is not the start of Countryfile, this is the start of Casualty.

The enraged beaver lurched at him and sunk his gnashers deep into his thigh. These teeth are used to cut trees, so a human leg is no challenge. The beaver hits a major artery and, despite his friends’ efforts to stop the flow, he bled out right there and then.

Dark.

Beaver attacks are pretty rare according to experts, they’re much more inclined to leg it than charge. But, earlier this week, the following video from Russia was uploaded, it stars a beaver charging at a guy called Alexander Targon, so maybe there’s some feral/rabid little blighters on the prowl at the mo?:

 

 

You don’t expect it do you? Fearsome. They are the second biggest rodents in the world, but rodents aren’t exactly known for their aggression. Under the original video it says the following:

“Last year in the US, two girls were mauled by a beaver in a lake in Virginia as they swam. They suffered serious bite and scratch injuries. A man was also attacked in New York and an elderly woman in Washington. In 2003 in Belarus a farm manager and farmhand were bitten by a rabid beaver as they tried to chase it from a barn. They survived the attack.”

The elderly woman from Washington they mentioned was 83. She’d been swimming in the lake and once she’d got out to dry herself, the beast knocked her off her feet. She and a friend repeatedly walloped the beaver using canoe paddles, a walking stick and their bare hands but it refused to let go of her leg. She was left with some impressive bite marks and a rabies jab.

In late June 2014 Michael Cavanaugh was in a kayak on Irondequoit Creek, about 7 miles outside of Rochester. He felt the rough end of a beaver too, the attack was bad enough that he was hospitalised. Here’s the report from their local news dudes (check out the healthy facial furniture on the hero of the clip. Awesome):

 

 

I’m sure you keep expecting this article to end, but it won’t, there’s simply too many beaver attacks to even begin to comprehend. Karen and Barry Rubinstein were enjoying a stroll by Surprise Lake in Union County’s Watchung Reservation, New Jersey a couple of years back. They saw a beaver head pop out the water and instead of going about its beaver business it charged straight for them and chased them into their car. No injuries occurred but the couple were “shook up”.

Maybe, as us humans encroach on beaver territory more and more, we’ll get more of the same. Maybe smaller and smaller animals will start fighting us for their turf. Give it 6 months and the squirrels will be having a go. Watch your nuts…..

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