Man Tries to Take Photo of Beaver; It Kills Him

Forget sharks: It's beavers that are truly terrifying. A fisherman in Belarus was bitten to death by one, and all he was doing was trying to take its picture, Sky News reports. The man spotted the beaver while fishing with friends at Lake Shestakov, but as he approached to take a photograph, the beaver bit him on the thigh. The animal managed to sever an artery, and his friends couldn't stop the blood flow.

Sky News helpfully reminds us that beavers can, of course, bite through trees. Beaver attacks are rare, though, and when they do occur, rabid beavers are generally to blame (as in this 2012 attack in upstate New York). But just this week, a video was posted on YouTube showing a beaver going after a Russian man, reports the Telegraph, and two girls were seriously injured after being mauled by a beaver in Virginia last year. In similar news with a happier ending, the AFP reports that a Komodo dragon "sunk its teeth into" an 83-year-old Indonesian woman on Tuesday—but she was able to fend it off. (More beavers stories.)