Beaver Kills Man In Belarus: Fisherman Died After Stopping To Take Beaver's Photo

A 60-year-old fisherman died after trying to take a picture of a beaver on a trip to Lake Shestakov in Belarus on Thursday.

The man and two friends were on a fishing trip when they saw the beaver at the side of a road. After the man moved closer to the beaver for a photo, it grabbed onto his thigh and severed an artery. He began bleeding profusely. Despite his friends' attempts to stop the blood flow, the man died before they could get medical help.

Environmental official in Brest, Belarus, Sergei Shilinchuk, said that beaver attacks are rare and that he'd never heard of a beaver killing someone.

"People have lost fingers, that's the worst I've come across. 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. Those who've seen a beaver's teeth will understand," Shilinchuk said.

He added that the fisherman and his friends should have thought twice before approaching it, because it is, after all, a wild animal.

Beaver attacks occur more often when a beaver is rabid, but there's no indication that this animal was; the beaver most likely simply felt threatened. While beaver attacks are not frequent, there was another beaver attack earlier this week reported in a region north of Moscow; in that attack a man fled and was not bitten.

Last year in Springfield, Virginia a beaver attacked a group of school children at a pond, chasing them as they screamed. None were bitten, however. Beavers are the second largest rodents on the planet, behind a South American rodent called the Capybara and ahead of the porcupine.