> 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.

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

Zombies who eat brains are the mentally ill.

Bram Stoker was gay, and so are his vampire characters.

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.

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

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...

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

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

I think you just invented epimemetics.

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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

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

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.

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

Humor is still there.

You're eating beaver back sac.

Thanks! The original link gave me a 403 only.

Yeah seems to be for everyone outside the US

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

The original link works here in Canada at least.

Confirmed rabies positive by the way.

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

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.

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

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

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

Sounds like a Primus song but not quite.

Can your Beaver Do The Attack?

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

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.

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

A møøse once bit my sister.

Mind you, møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti…

It was because the beaver was rabid.

> 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.

Didn’t this happen to Jimmy Carter once?

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)?

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

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.

surely there is a roland emmerich movie in there somewhere

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

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

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.

Shooting it with your pistol

Kicking it? It’s not a mountain lion.

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

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.

Make like a tree and leaf?

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

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

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

The heat is driving me crazy too.

wow, that was a pretty fast copyright takedown.