A 60-year-old fisherman died after trying to take a picture of a beaver on a trip to Lake Shestakov in Belarus, Sky News reported Thursday.

After the angler moved closer to the beaver for a photo, it grabbed onto his thigh and severed an artery. Despite his friends' attempts to stop the blood flow, the man died before they could get medical help.


Sergei Shilinchuk, an environmental official in Brest, Belarus, told the Telegraph that beaver attacks are rare and that he'd never heard of a beaver killing someone.

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

He added that the fisherman and his friends should have thought twice before approaching it.

"A beaver is a wild animal, after all," he said.

One man managed to capture footage of a beaver attacking him in an incident in Russia last month.

"Those who've seen a beaver's teeth will understand," he said, according to the Telegraph.