Maryland Closes More of Cunningham Falls State Park After Second Beaver Attack

tomcam | a month ago

"Beaver Attack" was not on my 2026 Hacker News headline bingo card

rdx-amw | a month ago

Sounds like a Primus song but not quite.

bryanrasmussen | a month ago

Can your Beaver Do The Attack?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4JqNwDcJ7o

lithocarpus | a month ago

"Beaver attacks on people are rare and are thought to primarily involve rabid animals" - the article

adzm | a month ago

Confirmed rabies positive by the way.

lenerdenator | a month ago

Good thing he went to the doctor. Potential rabies is one of those "you gotta do it" deals.

ChrisMarshallNY | a month ago

I had the rabies vaccinations, when I was a kid. A schoolmate brought infected guinea pigs to school. Dozens of us had to get the shots.

17 shots: 15 shots, and 2 boosters.

edaemon | a month ago

That sounds awful. Thankfully the regimen now is only one shot of HRIG and four doses of the vaccine over two weeks.

maxerickson | a month ago

The immunoglobulin is administered proportional to body weight, ideally with most of it injected near the site of the bite.

So one administration, but not necessarily one shot.

MattPalmer1086 | a month ago

And as I recall, injection into the stomach area. My dad and sister had to have them when i was a kid.

We went camping in France and then on to Italy. A rabid cat entered our tent in France, but we didn't know it was rabid. The authorities finally managed to track us down to an Italian camp site, no idea how they did that, but glad they did.

If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.

ChrisMarshallNY | a month ago

Yeah, the 15 were in the stomach. The boosters were in the arm.

> If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.

Shades of The Last of Us…

We got them, even if we just touched the little critters.

This was in 1969, in Morocco.

MattPalmer1086 | a month ago

Might have been better if we all just got them in retrospect.

I do strongly remember having to strip naked in front of an Italian doctor in Florence and be examined everywhere in great detail. Think this was about 1979.

peri-cl | a month ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20260806195522/https://news.mary...

binaryturtle | a month ago

Thanks! The original link gave me a 403 only.

wolvoleo | a month ago

Yeah seems to be for everyone outside the US

gucci-on-fleek | a month ago

The original link works here in Canada at least.

ribs | a month ago

Can’t have the Euros knowing how dangerous American beaver can be

delichon | a month ago

> The injured fisherman in today’s attack, a 19-year-old male, appeared to have sustained a bite to the ankle and transported himself

A disease that propagates itself by making animals want to bite other animals. I suppose rabies is the base phenomenon behind the zombie meme. It's also a good description of a large fraction of social media posts.

Razengan | a month ago

It's amazing how microorganisms, including that Cordyceps fungus, can "control" macro nervous systems so specifically..

sva_ | a month ago

With rabies I'm not sure it is really control in the sense that it makes the host find victims, but rather that your neurons get damaged in a way that causes immense agitation and the biting is almost a reflex to "defend" yourself as you're incapable of processing what is happening.

shagie | a month ago

Kurzgesagt has a video on it - The Deadliest Virus on Earth https://youtu.be/4u5I8GYB79Y?si=kpoOGGK8YUA-2P5k&t=378 (time coded to 6:18 where it talks about the lack of damage to the brain)

Part of it is that after it does its thing in the brain, it then travels to the salivary glands where it can then spread through a bite.

senordevnyc | a month ago

It's also a good description of a large fraction of social media posts.

Case in point.

neaden | a month ago

The issue there is that the modern Zombie myth of an undead creature that spreads by biting only dates back to 1968.

atomicnumber3 | a month ago

previous iterations were clearly not cool enough of a fantasy to be propagated

mwcz | a month ago

I think you just invented epimemetics.

jachee | a month ago

There is no Epimemetic Division.

delichon | a month ago

Turns out George Romero took the infectious aspect from the novel I Am Legend (made into Omega Man in 1971), which is a vampire story. He mashed up the European vampire with the Haitian "zonbi".

Some scholars think that the 18th century rabies epidemics shaped the vampire legend.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/04/20/rabies-seen-as-b...

onionisafruit | a month ago

Why does it being from 1968 mean it wasn’t inspired by rabies?

mohamedkoubaa | a month ago

Actually the American shopping mall, specifically the Monroeville mall near Pittsburgh PA in the 1960 inspired zombie lore

keeda | a month ago

Not quite zombies, but there is a credible theory that rabies was the inspiration for vampires -- and maybe even werewolves -- since a lot of the symptoms are similar, e.g. transmission through biting (often from dogs and bats, which coincidentally are also animals that vampires can transform into), heightened aggression that includes biting, aversion to bright lights and strong smells like garlic:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321780

ButlerianJihad | a month ago

Zombies who eat brains are the mentally ill.

Bram Stoker’s vampire characters and stories are gay, as are their heirs (Anne Rice).

Sparkling Twilight vampires are Latter-Day Saints.

Zombies and vampires existed long before these novels and films got made, but pop culture has a way of wiping out and superseding local folk culture in the modern minds of new generations.

walrus01 | a month ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynona%27s_Big_Brown_Beaver

bogzz | a month ago

This must be payback for us harvesting their delicious anal glands all those years ago.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/26/293406191/do...

fwipsy | a month ago

Well ackshually...

> Beaver food flavoring doesn't actually come from the animal's anal gland but from another organ next to it, called the castor sac.

I still wouldn't try it, myself.

bogzz | a month ago

The nuance takes some of the humor out of the notion of eating beaver ass, though. That weighty tail hides a delectable treat.

caminante | a month ago

Humor is still there.

You're eating beaver back sac.

suslik | a month ago

I wonder how was it first discovered how beaver anal glands taste like.

testaccount121 | a month ago

Is it merely coincidence that a beaver is slang for female genetalia?

mhh__ | a month ago

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18810/how-did-th... (was curious)

emmelaich | a month ago

I don't think it's too complex, considering various furry animals names have been used. Rabbit (coney/cunny), cat (pussy).

margalabargala | a month ago

Reading the article in the comment you just replied to, the delicious scent is apparent from simply sniffing near the beaver's rear end. I imagine it wasn't hard to find.

Fricken | a month ago

https://youtu.be/YTWqVk03eb0?si=3NW5xcGcqvY1etxM&t=427

knodi123 | a month ago

wow, that was a pretty fast copyright takedown.

profsummergig | a month ago

The heat is driving me crazy too.

nwatson | a month ago

We better hope there aren't cuts to -rabies wild animal vaccines. These have cut down incidents like these in large degree, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/national-wildlife-programs/rabies... .

QUOTE:

The National Rabies Management Program was established in recognition of the changing scope of rabies. The goal of the program is to prevent the further spread of wildlife rabies and eventually eliminate terrestrial rabies in the United States through an integrated program that involves the use of oral rabies vaccination targeting wild animals.

Since 1995, Wildlife Services (WS) has been working cooperatively with local, State, and Federal governments, universities and other partners to address this public health problem by distributing oral rabies vaccination (ORV) baits in targeted areas. This cooperative program targets the raccoon variant, canine variant in coyotes and a unique variant of gray fox rabies.

zabzonk | a month ago

My little brother was attacked once in France by a coypu. Needed medical attention. Beavers (we already have coypu) are being re-introduced into the UK, so maybe this sort of thing will increase here.

knodi123 | a month ago

A møøse once bit my sister.

WalterBright | a month ago

Mind you, møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti…

sva_ | a month ago

It was because the beaver was rabid.

zabzonk | a month ago

> beaver was rabid

We don't have rabies in the UK, thankfully, and I don't think my bro got a rabies jab for his French coypu bite. Just naturally grumpy rodents, I guess.

throw-the-towel | a month ago

Never heard the word "coypu" before, turns out it's the same as "nutria".

cactusplant7374 | a month ago

If a beaver does approach you, what's the best way to defend yourself?

knodi123 | a month ago

toss a raw tree trunk to distract him, and run in the opposite direction.

mh- | a month ago

Yes, it's crucial that the tree is uncooked, otherwise it won't work.

Izikiel43 | a month ago

Kicking it? It’s not a mountain lion.

cactusplant7374 | a month ago

I wonder if a walking stick or trekking pole could be used to bash or stab it. Hard to tell how fast they can move when under the influence of rabies.

bryanrasmussen | a month ago

It bit some guy in the ankle. So I'm not sure about moving my leg towards it.

foobar1962 | a month ago

Make like a tree and leaf?

dmd | a month ago

Pretending to be a tree is, literally, the worst possible strategy imaginable if you’re trying to avoid being bitten by a beaver.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS | a month ago

Assuming you're not otherwise armed, I would say something long and tough to whack, bash, and push (or pin) with, such as a tree branch.

kyleee | a month ago

Shooting it with your pistol

mhh__ | a month ago

surely there is a roland emmerich movie in there somewhere

hiyer | a month ago

Already done, though not by Emmerich - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombeavers

jambalaya8 | a month ago

I know this is a serious thing, and beavers can seriously maul someone, but this post title/headline still made me laugh. Am I going to hell (well, for that)?

mh- | a month ago

I turned my laptop around to show my wife the headline before I even started reading the article, as I immediately laughed as well.

duncangh | a month ago

Didn’t this happen to Jimmy Carter once?

bloomingeek | a month ago

That must have been one angry beaver, you know, like the TV show. (Sorry)

slillibri | a month ago

Rabid Beavers? Don't worry everyone, I'm sure Buc-ee's has already filed suit because rabid beavers is covered under their trade dress.