Man Bitten to Death by Beaver in Belarus

A fisherman in Belarus was bitten to death by a beaver while on a fishing trip with two of his friends.

According to DailyMail, the fisherman was at Lake Shestakov with his friends when they spotted the nocturnal semi-aquatic rodent by the side of the road.

Beavers are the extant species of Castor. They are the second-largest rodents in the world after Capybara, and are known for their natural trait of building dams and canals. Their population faces threat from humans as they are hunted for their fur and glands that are used as medicines and perfumes, according to Wikipedia.

When the 60-year-old man stepped forward to take a quick picture of the rodent, it jumped on him and pierced its sharp teeth into his thigh. The bite severed the main artery, leaving the man to bleed to death.

"It was early morning and already light when they saw a beaver by the road, which was unusual because beavers are nocturnal," Sergei Shtyk, the deputy head of the region's wildlife inspectorate was quoted as saying in The Telegraph.

A local doctor said that if a tourniquet had been applied to the victim's leg he could have survived, reports Counsel&Heal.

Last year in the U.S., two girls were attacked by a beaver and were terribly injured as they swam across a lake in Virginia. According to the experts, beavers very rarely attack humans, but the ones that do are usually rabid.