Man waiting at bus stop bitten by beaver

A man who was bitten by a beaver at a bus stop in Tyresö, south of Stockholm, Sweden, has been describing the attack.



Pentti Savola, 57, was among a group of early morning commuters waiting to get a bus to work when the animal came up to him and bit his leg last week. "It was lightning fast. I never thought that an animal that looks so clumsy could be so crafty," he said.



He said that he may have stressed the animal out as he took some photos of it. The wound on his leg was bleeding a lot but Mr Savola did not need antibiotics. "It has now healed nicely, I hold no grudge against the beaver", laughs Mr Savola.



He said he wanted to tell his story to warn children that they should not pet beavers without knowing more about the animals. The beaver was hunted to extinction in Sweden by the end of the nineteenth century but was reintroduced during the 1920s and 1930s after eighty of they were imported from Norway, in what is often cited as one of the most successful animal conservation efforts in history.