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There are a few hazzers who really like capturing photos of wildlife when out on the trail. This is a reminder that there's some danger involved in that!
Definitely avoid rabid beavers!

Belarus Beaver Bites Man to Death
A Belarus beaver bit a man to death as he tried to take a photo of it at Lake Shestakov.

The man was on a fishing trip with friends when the attack took place. The beaver pounced on him and bit him after he approached the animal for a picture.

His friends tried to stop him bleeding from his thigh, but the beaver had severed one of his main arteries and he quickly bled to death.

Read the whole story here:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/45610 ... -kills.htm

According to the article there have been several beaver attacks in recent years, including this one caught on video.
http://youtu.be/Tq_BEh1dhEw

chumley wrote:

gummo wrote:I was swimming at night ... in shallow water (about a foot and half deep)

If I saw somebody swimming in 18" of water, I'd probably come over to see what was going on too!

I was swimming back to camp and river happened to be very shallow in that area. It wasn't that shallow where I originally saw the beaver and where I was originally started.

SpiderLegs wrote:Doesn't Primus have a song about this?

That beaver's appetite for humans was quenched with Taco Bell.

Taco Bell is soylent green?

I'm not going to answer that until I have a lawyer present.

Umm, how is the HAZ fatality warning not posted at the bottom of this thread?

Here's another take on the story and also a couple of references to attacks here in the U.S...Sounds like most of these attacks may be from Rabid animals...Just another reason to be careful out there...

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la- ... 3288.story

I assume most attacks are alcohol or cranial-rectal infarction related. ;)

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-victims-w ... sorry-for/

Actually when it comes to Rabid animals, no one has to be stupid, they just have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time....

I was talking to a Blue River rancher last week about rabid animals. He said one thing about them, yes they will try to get close to you but he said they are not real fast because by the time they are doing that they are very sick. He said you can get away from them, or throw rocks at them, if you don't have a firearm to shoot them. But he reiterated that they are pretty slow. (Of course, he recommended I carry a firearm, but I traded mine away to the plumber to repair my frozen pipes in January.)

Stay away if they look like this!

We ALL know that guy!

That's not Rabies, that's what happens when you OD on Craft Beer.....

@Outdoor Lover
That's why I stick to Budweiser.

@azbackpackr
Chances are that Rancher is seeing that animal within a day or two of death. That virus hits their brain at a minimum of 7-10 days before that (some species longer than that), and does not render them incapacitated immediately. Their motor skills are among the last to go. I would never think for a moment that I could outrun a sick animal. Trust me, I've chased plenty... And I certainly would not do anything to "agitate" or confuse it. The best thing to do if you see any animal that is not behaving in a normal capacity, or is not in it's normal environment, including day vs night, would be to very quietly back up and leave the area. Anything can set them off and they can still instinctively move fast enough if they feel the need....The virus is transmitted and spread through saliva and bites...If these infected animals weren't quick enough to catch something and bite something else, then the virus would die with them instead of spreading...In third world countries, thousands of people still die from Rabies every year simply due to lack of quarantine controls. A lot of those infections are due to bats, but many are due to stray dogs and other mammals. Apparently, the animals are still faster....Just FYI...

I've thrown a full sized mag light flashlight at, and hit, a raccoon, only to watch him shake it off and look at me as if to say "Leave me alone, I'm breaking into your food storage bag". Armadillos are another tough little animal. They aren't much match for an 18 wheeler, but in camp, they pretty much go wherever THEY decide they want to go.


Sgt Lumpy - n0eq

Outdoor Lover wrote: Rabies every year simply due to lack of quarantine controls. A lot of those infections are due to bats, but many are due to stray dogs and other mammals. Apparently, the animals are still faster....Just FYI...

Most bats don't carry rabies. That's a myth that stated because one person picked up a sick bat and got bit and contracted rabies and died. Then a speluker in TX got rabies soon after, so as usual, Americans freaked out and spread false accusations that bats spread rabies, thus starting a mass murder campaign against bats and gave bats a bad reputation that still exists today. It was never proven how the speluker got rabies and most bats fed on nectur and insects.

Roughly, 97% of human rabies cases result from dog bites, and I've never known a dog that got bitten by a bat. Dogs probably got it from raccoons, coyotes, skunks, or foxes, and they may have gotten it from mice - not bats. Since a quater of all mammals population, if bats spread rabies, we'd be doomed. Just my 2 cents (plus interest)...



PS - Also, Batman never contracted rabies.

gummo wrote:PS - Also, Batman never contracted rabies.

Nor robin...

@gummo
Actually, I have to disagree with you on Bats. I've had formal training in this field and did Rabies Control for a living. We picked up many a Bat that tested positive for Rabies. There is actually a Bat Strain of the Virus. A woman in the West Valley was taking a walk with her small child in a stroller when a bat actually landed on the child's leg and bit her. It tested positive. A man in his apartment in Glendale had a Bat land on top of his head while he was in the bathroom shaving. It tested positive. A Cat caught a Bat in North Phoenix, brought it thru the doggie door, ate it, proceeded to puke it up and then the dog was in the process of eating it when the Petsitter caught him. That Bat tested positive as well. Bats are extremely susceptible because they live in such tight, massive colonies. And how many dogs do you think were probably bitten by sick bats when they went to pick them up??? Quite a few actually...The woman in Wisconsin, one of the few people in the world that survived the late stages of Rabies, was bitten by a Bat, and just didn't tell anyone...

gummo wrote:Roughly, 97% of human rabies cases result from dog bites

In the World, not in the U.S. Bat Bites actually account for the majority of Rabies in humans in the U.S. No myth Scott, I had to attend training with the State Health Department every other year...

Mice, on the other hand, are not as susceptible to spreading the disease because they, like other small mammals, are not likely to survive the bite that would transmit it in the first place.

If you would like more information...here's a quick, easy source....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies
And if anyone wants to know more than that, I can inundate you with sources or you can Google Rabies and Rabies Strains for more information than you probably care to know....

Outdoor Lover wrote: Quite a few actually...The woman in Wisconsin, one of the few people in the world that survived the late stages of Rabies, was bitten by a Bat, and just didn't tell anyone..

Well, if she didn't tell anyone, how did we learn about this? (just kidding)

="Outdoor Lover"A lot of those infections are due to bats

I do agree with a lot of what you say. I disagree with the above statement, even in the 3rd world. The myth lies where a high percentage of bats carry rabies when in fact few bats carry rabies, and rabies rates for bats have been over-estimated (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 133323.htm). Bats rarely bite people and dogs. In Austin, they have the largest urban bat population in the world, yet not the largest rabies infestation. I've been to Austin a few times and no one is afraid of getting rabies there and there is a lot of bats.

No hard feelings, but I'm sticking to my previous post, except you might be right about the mice thing.

@gummo
I am by no means stating that every other Bat out there has Rabies...If it did, we would be finding sick bats all over the place in metro areas at an alarming rate. And my statement about "a lot of infections" was meant to say in the U.S. You are correct in that 97% of infections in the world are caused by dog bites. Dogs as a reservoir for Rabies has been almost completely eliminated in the U.S.

However, with that being said, Bats are the #1 Rabies Vector in Arizona and probably in most other states. The reason for that is sheer numbers...I'm not even going to try to speculate how many Bats call Arizona or the U.S. home, but the numbers are staggering. Now ratio the Bat Population with the populations of every other known Rabies Vector out there and you'll understand why they lead the way...It's not that every Bat out there has it, it's that the 1% that do, still outnumber the amount of other mammals that are infected, simply because of the sheer size of the Bat populations...

Hopefully that clarifies it for you??? It's not about giving Bats a bad name, it's just that people in general are more likely to run into a Rabid Bat, than any other type of rabid animal, in their lifetime, simply because they do inhabit a lot of Metro areas. Most never will. We averaged about 1 call a week for Bats. That is until the City of Glendale found out that a colony had invaded City Hall and were starting to get into the Office areas... Took us a week to find out where they were coming from. The City had opened up some holes near the roof for Glendale Glitter displays and the Bats decided they liked it....We turned it over to Game and Fish...

My point with Liz was that Rabid animals can react in a very rapid manner while they are contagious, at least until just on the verge of death...That's probably the stage that the Rancher sees most often, when they've lost motor control and are in the latest of the last stage...It can be the most dramatic and easily spotted...