I was reading this article on noodling(the latter is the correct link-sc) and it’s claimed that some noodlers have lost arms & hands to beavers. Is this even possible? I didn’t think beavers were that big. Arebeavers jaws theoretically capable of doing this? Can a big beaver take your hand off?
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Your hand? I think Freud might say that kind of anxiety is misplaced.
But anyway . . . what would a beaver be doing living in a catfish hole?
Beavers can actually get pretty big - 40 - 60 lbs, and they have pretty nasty teeth.
However, they don’t exactly go hunting for people, ya know? A rabid beaver could certainly attack a person, and a beaver that was cornered could certainly attack a person.
That being said, I’ve never heard of a beaver attack, when you go to Banff national park (it’s crawling with beavers) they’re not actually mentioned as an animal to avoid (as opposed to bear, elk, moose, etc), and I don’t know anyone that’s ever heard of a beaver attack.
So - they certainly have the teeth for it, but I’d be surprised if you could find a confirmed story of a person with a limb missing, thanks to a beaver.
I’ll await others input with interest.
Beavers can’t breathe underwater, so I can’t really see them making a home in a catfish hole for any length of time. If you did happen to stick your hand in a hole containing a beaver, reason says you you would remove said hand after the first chomp by the beaver. Since beavers gnaw rather than chew, it would most likely take more than one chomp for the beaver to remove a limb Unless, of course, you held it down there and let him have at it.
Just my $.02.
Alice,
I think you don’t understand what noodling is. In noodling, a person would shove their hand into an underwater hole that contains (unbeknownst to the person) an angry beaver defending its nest.
If you shove your open hand into a cornered beaver’s mouth, what happens next will be messy. The OP’s question is just how messy can it get.
I agree with you that in other scenario beavers are not fearsome hunters-of-man to be avaoided at all costs.
You were doing nothing of the kind. You were looking at a 50 pound pussy! :eek:
Can I fix your link for you?
samclem
Take off a finger? Probably.
Severely damage a hand? Probably.
Take off a hand or an arm? Probably not, unless the appendage had to be removed due to gangrene or other complicatiosn.
Yes please!
More noodling
Here is a catfish (not the cat)
Video Action from the film Okie Noodling
No - I kind of got that (although I have no idea what the appeal of that particular hobby would be).
However, as SnakesCatLady suggested, you’d get a nasty bite for sure, but a beaver just isn’t going to be ripping your arm off. I’d bet that as soon as you pulled your arm away the beaver would pretty much leave you alone and go back to smacking it’s tail and guarding it’s babies, as opposed to chowing down, ya know?
Well, it can take your leg off.
If, you’re like, a Pirate & stuff. 
It turns out that googling for "beaver bite"may not be your best option here.
