Hot dam, it's rabid beaver summer
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Not a zombie beaver ... we don't think. Photo: Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images
We had hot girl summer. Then brat summer. And now we may have rabid beaver summer.
Why it matters: Forget "Cocaine Bear" and "Meth Gator" — we may be living in the plot of "Zombeavers."
Driving the news: Two people have been attacked by rabid beavers in just under two weeks at Cunningham Falls State Park, a sprawling site that sees more than 575,000 visitors a year in Frederick County, Maryland.
- This prompted officials to close portions of the park and cancel water activities like swimming, boating and fishing.
- And, yes, people are making beaver attack memes.
What they're saying: "There's no larger trend going on here," Joshua Tabora, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist, tells Axios. "This is unfortunate, but a chance event."
Zoom in: Beavers aren't typical rabies carriers, so it's likely that one of these beavers had contact with another species — like a raccoon or a skunk — then passed the rabies on to the second beaver, Tabora says.
- He says he doesn't think there are any other beavers left in the area — officials have been using thermal (fur-mal?) imaging to search — but the park will remain closed for now out of caution.
The intrigue: Yeah, but … is Tabora familiar with the plot of "Zombeavers"? Does POTUS need to head to his bunker?
- Several people have sent the movie — which is about zombie beavers, obviously — to Tabora as a joke since the beaver attacks started, and he calls it "so outlandishly silly as not to be based on any biology."
- He then pauses. "It's something I may visit once this is all behind us."
Between the lines: Beaver attacks are uncommon. The animals aren't aggressive and typically avoid people, per Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.
- The last recorded beaver attack in Maryland prior to this year was in 2021.
The bottom line: There are no beavers craving human flesh … for now.
- "This incident shouldn't be interpreted as some kind of precedent," says Tabora. "I definitely wouldn't want people to come away from this with some inordinate fear of beavers."