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Next time you see a beaver do not try to take its picture! One Belarus angler found out the hard way that, though attacks from the rodent are very rare, if the animal is rabid or feels threatened it will attack. This 60-year-old former serviceman, who has not been publicly identified, was bitten twice on the thigh by the beaver, which severed an artery causing him to bleed to death before an ambulance could reach him near Minkovichi in Brest region.
According to Sergei Shtyk, the deputy head of the region's wildlife inspectorate,the victim had tried to approach the beaver after he and two friends saw it as they headed out on a fishing trip.
"It was early morning and already light when they saw a beaver by the road, which was unusual because beavers are nocturnal," said Mr Shtyk.
"One of them went up to be photographed with it, and the animal attacked him and bit him twice, cutting an artery in his thigh, before running away. The man's friends tried to bandage him and find a doctor in a nearby village but he died from blood loss before help arrived."
Beavers are the worlds second largest rodents and have teeth that are mainly used for literally cutting down trees.
"People have lost fingers - that's the worst I've come across," Sergei Shilinchuk, deputy head of Brest's environmental protection committee, said. "The beaver is not normally aggressive, but it does have big teeth and immensely powerful jaws; it can cut down a tree three feet wide."
Oddly enough, this beaver attack was not the only one to happen this week. In the video provided below, you can see a man filming a beaver walking along the side of a small road. Soon enough, the beaver turns to the cameraman and lunges. Luckily, this man survived the attack unlike the Belarus fisherman.
