Two rabid beaver attacks at one of Maryland's most popular state parks have sent a teenager to a trauma hospital by helicopter and forced officials to shut down swimming and day-use areas indefinitely.
A 13-year-old boy was swimming at Hunting Creek Lake inside Cunningham Falls State Park on July 26 when a beaver attacked him, leaving injuries to his hands and chest serious enough that he was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital. The park sits near the town of Thurmont in Frederick County, about an hour northwest of Baltimore, and drew more than 455,000 visitors in 2025. Wildlife officials euthanized the beaver the following day. It tested positive for rabies.
Ten days later, on August 5, a second beaver attacked a 19-year-old fisherman at the same park, biting him in the ankle. He drove himself to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, where he received treatment and a tetanus shot. That beaver was also euthanized and also came back positive for rabies.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources responded by closing swimming access to Hunting Creek Lake after the first attack and expanding the closure to surrounding day-use areas after the second. Joe Zimmermann, a public information officer for the DNR, told Fox News Digital that those areas will stay closed until wildlife experts and park management decide it is safe to reopen.
Zimmermann said traps have been set since the first incident on July 26, and wildlife staff are conducting nighttime surveys of the lake area using thermal imaging equipment. Staff have also checked the surrounding area for signs of additional beavers.
"Maryland Department of Natural Resources staff, including wildlife specialists and park staff, are working to ensure the safety of the area and confirm that there are no additional beavers present."
Other areas of the park remain open for camping and hiking. But the closure of the lake, the park's central draw during summer, removes the main attraction for tens of thousands of seasonal visitors. The DNR has not given a timeline for reopening.
Wildlife emergencies involving beloved or dangerous animals have become a recurring feature of outdoor life across the country. A bald eagle named Jackie at Big Bear Lake recently died after weeks of intensive care, a reminder that encounters between humans and wildlife carry real stakes on both sides.
Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. The disease attacks the brain, stripping infected animals of their natural fear of humans and driving aggressive behavior, which explains why two beavers, normally shy and avoidant, charged directly at people.
Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, told Fox News Digital that canine rabies was largely eliminated in the United States by the 1970s. But the virus persists in wildlife. Bats, foxes, raccoons, and skunks are all known carriers. Beavers are far less common vectors, which makes back-to-back attacks at the same park unusual.
Brian Labus, an infectious disease epidemiologist and associate professor at the UNLV School of Public Health, explained that the rabies virus lives in the saliva of infected animals. A single bite or scratch can transmit it. The World Health Organization estimates that globally, up to 99 percent of human rabies cases come from infected dogs, but in the U.S., where dog vaccination is routine, wild animals pose the greater risk.
Medical experts recommend washing any bite or scratch wound with soap and water for 10 to 15 minutes and seeking medical attention immediately. Treatment after exposure typically requires a series of rabies vaccines administered right away. Left untreated, the disease is virtually a death sentence. The New York Post reported that both victims required medical intervention, with the severity of the 13-year-old's injuries warranting the helicopter airlift.
Dr. Cheyenne Falat, associate medical director of the adult emergency department at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, urged caution around any wild animal behaving abnormally. Animals that approach or charge humans or domestic animals, she noted, should be treated as potentially rabid.
Cunningham Falls State Park is one of Maryland's busiest outdoor destinations, a fact that makes the timing of these attacks particularly consequential. Summer is peak season. Families drive from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas to swim, hike, and camp. Closing the lake in August is the equivalent of shutting down the main stage at a concert.
The DNR has not confirmed whether additional rabid beavers remain in the park. Zimmermann said staff "remain vigilant throughout the entire park," but the open questions are obvious: How many beavers live in and around Hunting Creek Lake? Have the traps caught anything since July 26? And when will families with young children know it is safe to return?
Unexpected encounters with danger, whether at a state park or a national monument, can change lives in seconds. Recent cases of individuals facing serious consequences from impulsive moments at public landmarks underscore how quickly a routine outing can turn into something far more serious.
Neither victim's current medical condition has been publicly disclosed. The 13-year-old's airlift to Johns Hopkins, a Level I trauma center, suggests his injuries were significant. Whether either young man has begun or completed a post-exposure rabies vaccine series remains unknown.
Public accountability matters in cases like this, even when the threat comes from nature rather than negligence. The DNR acted quickly to euthanize both animals and close the affected areas. But the gap between the first attack on July 26 and the second on August 5, ten days, at a park that remained partially open, raises a fair question about whether enough was done fast enough. A Kentucky woman recently learned the hard way that delayed consequences don't mean absent ones. The same principle applies to wildlife management.
When a 13-year-old gets airlifted out of a swimming hole because a rabid beaver tore into his hands and chest, the public deserves straight answers and a clear plan, not just closed signs and thermal cameras in the dark.
