Another beaver attacks a Maryland state park visitor

Beaver attacks are rare. But they keep happening this summer in Maryland.

On Thursday afternoon, a beaver attacked a 10-year-old girl who was canoeing at Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County. The girl, a summer camper, suffered “three laceration wounds on the upper leg” according to a news release from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. She was taken to a hospital in Bethesda by family members.

That marks the third time that a human has been attacked by a beaver within a Maryland state park in the past month. The first two attacks — on a 13-year-old and then a 19-year-old — occurred in Cunningham Falls State Park in Frederick County. Each of those beavers was killed and later tested positive for rabies.

The most recent beaver assailant “escaped into the water,” the release said, so it’s unclear if it carried rabies. The animal is being pursued by local authorities.

When untreated, rabies is almost certainly fatal. Generally speaking, if someone is attacked by a potentially rabid animal, they are encouraged to receive a series of highly effective rabies vaccines.

Data does not indicate that there is a rabies outbreak in either Frederick County or Montgomery County, according to the release.

“With the distance of the two parks from one another, as well as the home range and social behavior of beavers, the incident in Seneca Creek is not considered related to the incidents at Cunningham Falls,” it stated.

Since the first attack at Cunningham Falls State Park on July 26, that park has been partially closed.

In the eastern United States, rabies is relatively common in some animals. Over 100 raccoons test positive each year in Maryland, for example. But it’s rare in rodents such as beavers.

Although rabid beaver attacks do happen in the U.S., they are far from typical. Lunar eclipses are more common. Prior to this summer, the last rabid beaver attack in Maryland happened in 2021.

The recent strikes have some residents on alert.

Masha Levy, a Rockville resident, told The Banner this week that she’d observed a beaver behaving oddly on July 25 at Black Hill Regional Park, also in Montgomery County, while she was kayaking.

Beavers are mostly nocturnal and aquatic, but this one was out of its lodge and on land midday. It was not aggressive, Levy said, but lethargic, which made her wonder if it was sick. Rather than scurrying away as humans approached, it was unfazed.

“When I read about the incident on [July 26], I was like, ‘Wow, we actually got pretty lucky,’” she said.

Following the incident in Montgomery County on Thursday, portions of Seneca Creek State Park are now closed.

This article may be updated.