Beaver Bites and Kills Man in Belarus
Posted on April 12, 2013
A beaver attacked and killed a man in Belarus. The man was apparently trying to stand next to the beaver so a friend could take a photograph. The Telegraph reports that the beaver bit the man on his thigh, which severed an artery. The beaver than ran away. The Telegraph says there are 80,000 beavers in Belarus. There have been reports of beavers biting off people's fingers in Belarus, but this is the first fatality. It is not known if the beaver was rabid.
Beaver Solutions - a company that specializes in resolving human/beaver conflicts - says in an article that beavers are not known to attack humans. Beaver Solutions writes, "Adult beavers will defend their territory by attacking any beaver outside its family who enters it. However, other than territorial disputes or self-defense, they appear to have a strong inhibition towards biting and are not known to attack humans."
Beavers clearly can be surprisingly aggressive at times. It appears to be a territorial response. Two girls were attacked in a Virginia lake last June. Last year, an 83-year-old woman was attacked by a fearsome two-foot beaver in a Washington lake. Below is a video of another incident - an aggressive beaver turning around in chasing a man in Russia. Take a look: