The beaver was a cute curiosity until it got mad.

Then it was just plain scary.

Terry Furlotte would know; he barely escaped without getting nipped.

The 52-year-old was visiting family in Miramichi, N.B., on Tuesday afternoon, about to tuck into a big steak at Mike’s, a pub and grill near the city’s main drag.

That’s when he noticed an uncharacteristic kerfuffle on the street out the window. Traffic was halted and people were gathering, gawking at something. He saw the beaver.

The dam-dwelling rodent of symbolic, historic and national import was sauntering along the sidewalk, much to the amusement of those pouring out of the Jean Coutu pharmacy and nearby homes for a gander.

“There I see the beaver going down the sidewalk,” said Furlotte with a hearty chuckle. “I found it odd that he was just walking downtown here. He was on a stroll down King St.”

It was the strangest thing, so naturally, Furlotte went outside to get a closer look and immortalize the moment with a picture on his phone. Having “grown up in the woods,” the Nova Scotian wasn’t nervous about approaching the beast, which Furlotte described as about two feet long and one foot around.

He bent down to snap the beaver’s photo, but evidently the beast didn’t like it.

“He slapped his tail, turned around with a big old hiss, you could see his teeth there sticking out,” said Furlotte, who was startled.

“I had to turn and run away. . . . He chased me down the road.”

Once the mad beaver of Miramichi got aggressive, police were called to deal with the animal. They dealt with the scene by cordoning off streets to make sure the rodent didn’t get hit by a car, and waited for the beaver to wander back into the wilderness.

He’s still out there. He could return.

Days late, the scene is still the talk of the town. Call up city hall, people along the King George Highway that runs through town, or one of the local shops and you’ll get a chuckle about the stir caused by the beaver.

Peter Richardson, the animal control officer for the city of 17,000, said there are many beavers in the area, but he’s never heard of one roaming into town like this. Even so, he doesn’t think the beaver’s behaviour was abnormal.

In the spring, young beavers are often “driven” out of their dams by their parents to make room for a new litter, Richardson said. And as for the apparent aggression, that’s normal, too.

“All that was, was that too many people were getting out to take a look,” said Richardson.

“The only thing it knows to do is either run or stand its ground. . . . It was just protecting itself.”

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Though it’s exceedingly rare, beavers have been known to attack people. Last May, a fisherman in Belarus died after being bitten by a beaver he was trying to photograph. An elderly Virginia woman was knocked into a lake and battled a beaver that had bitten her leg for 20 minutes in 2012. She managed to escape.

Jeff Gates, owner of an animal management firm called All Canadian Wildlife Control, said beavers shouldn’t be considered dangerous, but like all rodents, can get mean when they feel threatened or are protecting their young.

“They’re pretty tough. If you ever tangled with one it would win probably. They’ve got a good bite and big claws.”

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