Article content

Jeremy McNaughton won’t quickly forget his encounter with a rogue beaver that attacked him off the shores of Nova Scotia.

The 23-year-old Halifax man was snorkelling in Spanish Ship Bay, near Sherbrooke, with a couple of friends, when one of them looked down and noticed an animal of generous proportions with reddish-brown fur following them.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vicious beaver attacks Halifax snorkeler off Nova Scotia's coast Back to video

“I thought it must be a seal,” said Paul Skerry, who was in the water with McNaughton, due to the sheer size of the creature, which he estimates weighed nearly 50 pounds.

Never suspecting its true identity, considering beavers live exclusively in freshwater, Skerry couldn’t make sense of what the animal was until it approached him.

“I quickly realized it could only be a beaver,” once he recognized the animal’s markings, including buck teeth and a distinctly paddle-shaped tail, he said.

The beaver approached Skerry, who said it seemed intent on attacking him.