Rabid beaver bites girl swimming in 'haunted' Lake Lanier in rare attack
In the first such attack in decades, a rabid beaver attacked and bit a little girl swimming in Georgia's Lake Lanier - a body of water that's become known as America's most haunted lake.
The father of the child managed to subdue the beaver, beating it to death to rescue his daughter.
Hall County Animal Control Field Supervisor Kevin Buecker told WDUN that the girl was swimming on private property at the northern end of the lake on Saturday when she suddenly started screaming. The beaver had bitten her leg.
Her quick-thinking parent was able to dive into the water and get the girl away from the aggressive beaver before it managed to do more damage. According to authorities, the beaver was between 50-55 lbs, one of the largest spotted in the lake.
Beavers aren't usually aggressive, but one infected with rabies recently bit a child in Georgia (Getty Images)After the father subdued the creature, the state requested its body for testing. Blood tests determined that the beaver was infected with rabies, a common disease that makes animals aggressive that can be passed to humans.
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The child was then given a rabies shot.
Lake Lanier itself has quite a sinister history - causing some to speculate on what actually made the beaver, a normally passive animal, attack a child. Named after a Confederate army veteran, the lake was artificially made by the US government in the 1950s. The construction displaced over 250 (number is contested) families.
According to Styleblueprint.com, "Many of the structures, buildings, and roads that were flooded during the lake’s creation were left as is. Divers find eerie relics of streets, walls, and houses intact, like an abandoned ghost town on the lake’s bottom. Discovery Channel... proved... that there are 20 cemeteries with headstones and graves still at the bottom of the lake that were never removed. The ancestors of the disrupted populations were never relocated, thus sparking many stories of haunted encounters."
More than 200 people have died in swimming and boating accidents on the lake since 1994, but others say the lake's seen nearly 700 deaths since its construction.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said that this is the first such beaver attack in over 20 years - prompting the question of how the beaver got rabies in the first place.
An aerial shot of Lake Lanier, where a rabid beaver recently bit a little girl (AP)"Once that rabies virus gets into the brain of the animal – in this case, a beaver – they just act crazy," he said. Since the attack, the county placed a rabies warning sign near the Sardis Creek Boat Ramp.
Beavers aren't the only animals dialling up the aggression towards humans this summer, as Colorado just recorded the first bear attack of 2023, an agitated otter has been recorded stealing surfboards in California, and sharks bit teenagers in New York. Meanwhile, the now infamous orcas destroying yachts appear to be organizing, as boats are being attacked in multiple regions.
Experts believe animals are becoming more aggressive as humans continue to encroach on their territories.
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