By Jennifer Lilonsky (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Apr 12, 2013 11:10 AM EDT

A fisherman was reportedly killed by a beaver in Belarus after the rodent attacked him and severed an artery.

The 60-year-old angler, who has yet to be identified at this time, bled to death after the beaver bit him twice on the thigh, reports The Telegraph.

An ambulance was not able to reach the fisherman in time to stop the bleeding.

"The man's friends tried to bandage him and find a doctor in a nearby village but he died from blood loss before help arrived," said Sergei Shtyk, deputy head of the wildlife inspectorate in the region.

The man apparently tried to approach the beaver-the world's second largest rodent-as he was about to embark on a fishing excursion with friends.

"It was early morning and already light when they saw a beaver by the road, which was unusual because beavers are nocturnal," Shtyk said.

"One of them went up to be photographed with it, and the animal attacked him and bit him twice, cutting an artery in his thigh, before running away."

But deputy head of Brest's environmental protection committee Sergei Shilinchuk said that while he has heard of beaver attacks in the past, he has yet to come across one that results in a fatality.

"People have lost fingers-that's the worst I've come across," he said.

"The beaver is not normally aggressive, but it does have big teeth and immensely powerful jaws; it can cut down a tree three feet wide."

And in other beaver attack news, a video was uploaded to YouTube last week that shows a man being attacked by the large rodent in Russia.

But the man in this assault was able to escape without injury.

(SOURCE)

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