Maryland Officials Shut Down State Park After 2 Beaver Attacks

Something strange is going on with the beavers that live at Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland. They keep trying to take a chunk out of human visitors. On Wednesday, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported that a fisherman was recently attacked by a beaver in the area—the second such incident documented in less than two weeks. The person was preventively treated for rabies, while the department has closed off additional sections of the park in response. Officials are investigating the possibility of a rabies outbreak afflicting the local beavers. On the morning of July 26, a beaver bit into a 13-year-old boy swimming in the park’s Hunting Creek Lake. The boy suffered injuries to his hands and chest and was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Local officials soon captured and euthanized the beaver, and a day later, the animal tested positive for rabies (rabies can only be definitively confirmed by testing brain tissue directly). The park then shut down swimming access to the lake while officials looked for more rabid beavers nearby. This latest attack occurred Wednesday morning around the park’s South Beach Day Use area. The fisherman, a 19-year-old