The late summer rabid beaver story. We get them every year, and it’s truly impossible to know whether they arise from a truly rabid beaver OR a beaver protecting it’s young that are born in the summer, Surely we never ever hear about rabid beavers in the winter or spring. But then no one usually wants to swim then either.

Lucky to be alive: 73-year-old Greenfield man mauled by beaver

GREENFIELD — A 73-year-old Greenfield man is recovering from injuries suffered when his leisurely swim in a remote Franklin County pond turned into a life-or-death fight with an enraged, and likely rabid, beaver.

Mark “Pres” Pieraccini suffered extensive injuries in the Sept. 6 attack, and came close to drowning. He had multiple puncture wounds, flesh torn from an arm and a leg, scratches and lacerations over his body and scalp, and a torn tendon on one of his fingers. He also has a fractured knuckle on one hand, mostly likely from punching the beaver as it repeatedly attacked him.

He is also undergoing treatment for rabies.

In an interview with The Republican, Pieraccini said fighting a prolonged battle with an enraged 50-pound wild animal while trying to stay afloat left him exhausted. While the fight continued in the deep water — he estimated it lasted five minutes — it occurred to him that he was in deep trouble.

 

They man doesn’t want to say which beaver pond because he likes beavers and doesn’t want  Mass Wildlife to kill them. So he’s clearly not a threat. But I myself spent 10 years of lazy mornings and evenings in very close quarters with beavers and their young and never felt in the least in danger.

Still when you think of what a tree looks like after beavers chew on it his leg doesn’t look that bad.

He said the doctors and nurses at the emergency room didn’t really grasp what he was saying when he told them he had been attack by a beaver. And then he took off his clothes to reveal the full extent of his injuries.

“No one had any clue what I was dealing with until I took my clothes off,” he said.”

Based on his research, Woodard said there have been just 11 attacks by beavers on people in North America over the last 10 years. In comparison, there have been 445 shark attacks, seven of them fatal, in the U.S. over the same period.

Most of those 11 beaver attacks involved beavers that were rabid. Woodard said he has no doubts, based on Pieraccini’s description and on the extent of his injuries, that his beaver was also rabid. The beaver has not been recovered, so there is no way to verify it.

The sad thing for the beaver of course is that every beaver in it’s family will soon be rabid too. Unless a rabid beaver is too crazed to swim home in the morning. In which case one or two might escape.

There’s more this morning, from Canada,

Not-so-docile animals: Angry beavers

Having lived an outdoor lifestyle for most of my life, I have come across a wide assortment of animals in distress. I once saved a baby pronghorn that misjudged the height of a barbwire fence, and a similar situation with a doe mule deer that had both hind legs tangles in the wire.

Lately, I have been seeing some very disturbing reports about beavers. My relationship with the beaver goes way back to my childhood and ranch days with my grandparents.

We had several creeks that flowed through our little ground. The water was very important to us, but for different reasons. My grandfather wanted the water to flow, free of obstructions, and irrigate his hay fields, so he could make money to keep us in daily gruel. I wanted the creeks for fishing.

The beavers dammed up the creeks, making wonderful ponds that held many trout. I would wade these ponds amongst the many beavers, and they basically ignored me. They never attacked me or threatened me for that matter. We maintained a very equitable relationship. They made ponds for me to fish in, and I kept the information from my grandfather, lest he blow the ponds, much to the dismay of the beavers and me.

So far so good, Some fond memories of swimming with beavers on the farm and fishing in their ponds. We like this story so far,

Science tells us that beavers can be very aggressive when defending their territory against interlopers. They might also attack humans when infected with rabies, although it is rare for a beaver to become rabid. There is also some thinking that beavers can become disoriented during the daylight hours and attack out of fear.

I have never found a beaver to be aggressive. I have walked up next to them, fished alongside of them, and watched them work on a pond for hours, never having one display any type of aggressiveness towards me. Perhaps that is about to change.

A 60-year-old fisherman in Belarus (a landlocked country in Europe) died when he was attacked by a beaver. The beaver tore open an artery and the man bled to death.

The media described the incident as “the latest in a series of beaver attacks on humans in the country.” Authorities claim the beaver was rabid, while others stated the man grabbed the beaver in an attempt to take a picture with it, hence the marshmallow and bison outcome.

Here the author does a fair job of walking through the famous beaver stories in the past few years, all cases of rabies or very very poor judgement. Or both.

Then he says something I truly enjoyed, Make sure you read this closely.

I am not sure if the beavers are seeking reparations for the years of trapping, they endured or if they hate kayaks. In either event, I am going to start keeping a closer eye on them when I am fishing a beaver pond. They may still be angry about the way my grandfather used to blow their ponds with dynamite.

Yes, Yes they are, I am too. Watch yourself around us buddy.