Video Of Beaver Charging At People In Bergen County Park Goes Viral

MAHWAH, NJ — After a beaver bit an 8-year-old boy in North Jersey on Sunday — sending him to the hospital — a video of a similar incident has gone viral.

The video, posted by creator Michael Noonan on social media on Sunday evening, shows a beaver charging out of a lake in Mahwah toward a group of people, until someone tosses it back into the lake.

The video went viral after police in Mahwah said that — in an apparent separate incident — an 8-year-old boy was fishing at the lake, in Continental Soldiers Park, when a beaver came out of the water and charged him.

Captain Michael Blondin told Patch on Monday that the child tried to run away, but he tripped, and the beaver began biting him. A family member kicked and hit the animal until it left.

Tyco Animal Control was able to capture the beaver, which police said they saw attacking others in a video on the internet.

The rodent was determined to have the fatal disease rabies, police announced Tuesday.

In Noonan's beaver video, onlookers from across the lake can be heard laughing as the beaver comes out of the water. Someone tosses the animal back into the lake, and a small dog barks at the beaver and chases it.

The video, posted with the caption "Funniest Thing I've Seen In A While," can be seen here.

Noonan told Patch that people are spreading misinformation regarding his video. He said that it's a separate incident from the later attack on the boy, which police had said happened around 6 p.m. — about an hour after the video was posted.

"There is a lot of misinformation being spread," Noonan said Thursday. "Two separate incidents happened that day. Apparently an 8-year-old child was bit later on in the day after my video was taken ... nobody was hurt in my video. The people who were attacked by the beaver stayed and continued to fish afterwards like nothing even happened."

Noonan said he lives in the area.

Police had said that they had seen a video that confirmed more than one attack at the lake that day.

Deadly Disease

Rabies, when passed to other people or unvaccinated animals, is always fatal unless treated quickly. Police urged residents to reach out to local officials immediately if they had any contact with the animal.

Mahwah officials said that people who were bitten by the beaver on Sunday are currently receiving medical treatment.

"Everyone is advised to avoid wildlife, as any warm-blooded animal can carry rabies," officials said Tuesday.

The Mahwah Health Department can be contacted at 201-529-5757. Police can be contacted at (201) 529-1000 x 210.

Experts say that it's rare but possible for beavers to contract rabies and transmit it to humans. It's much rarer for smaller rodents to transmit it because they die of the virus quickly, but groundhogs have been known to transmit it, experts say.

Last fall, at least two coyotes with rabies were captured in Bergen County. Read about that here.