Alligators, Gorillas, Bears, Snakes, Even Cows: Danger Lurks Where You Least Expect It
The awful story this week about a 2-year-old boy who witnesses said was pulled by an alligator into a lagoon near a Walt Disney World hotel in Orlando, Florida and later found dead serves as a reminder that danger lurks even in “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
The news captured as much attention as another recent animal-related tragedy, last month’s shooting death by Cincinnati Zoo employees of Harambe, a rare mountain gorilla, after a 3-year-old boy climbed a fence, fell into a moat and was threatened by the 450-pound animal.
Combined with recent, well-publicized accounts about shark attacks in Florida, California and Hawaii, as well as grizzly bear maulings in Alaska, these tragic incidents at first blush seem to underscore the risks of human-animal encounters.
As one who once escaped a charging grizzly bear and also had been menaced by a shark while rowing a small boat in the middle of the night, I’m not one to pooh-pooh the potential peril posed by predators. But statistics I gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, news media and various nonprofit organizations put these risks in perspective.
The fact is we should be more wary about domestic animals, along with insects and spiders, than we are of wild creatures.
Let’s start with alligators. Wildlife authorities estimate more than a million of the fearsome reptiles prowl Florida’s lakes, rivers, canals, lagoons and swamps, yet the toddler’s death was only the second reported this year in the United States. A week earlier a 72-year-old man either was killed by a gator in Lakeland, Fla., or drowned and subsequently eaten by the animal.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission there have been a total of 257 unprovoked alligator attacks in Florida since 1948, resulting in 23 fatalities. This translates to a 1 in 2.4 million chance you will be injured or killed by an alligator in Florida.
The odds are equally slim you’ll be taken out by a shark. The most recent reported fatality was of a 65-year-old woman apparently bitten by a tiger shark in Maui, Hawaii, in April 2015. Sharks kill only about one person a year in U.S. waters.
The most recent person killed by a grizzly bear in the United States was a 63-year-old man attacked in August 2015 in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. As is the case with shark attacks, only about one person a year is killed by a brown bear.
The last person reported killed by a mountain lion in the United States was a 55-year-old man in New Mexico, in 2008.
Meanwhile, earlier this month a 71-year-old man died after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake in South Carolina. Snakebites kill about six people every year, virtually the same number that die from spider bites. Bites by other bugs also account for about nine U.S. fatalities each year.
The Washington Post cited a CDC report last year showing you have a much better chance being killed by a cow. Bovines take out about 20 people a year, mostly farm workers.
Now, let’s move on to much more dangerous animals: dogs, which kill about 30 Americans annually.
According to DogBite.org, a private, nonprofit organization that promotes stricter canine control, 34 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities occurred in 2015. So far this year there have been 13 such deaths.
The organization blamed pit bulls for 82 percent (28) of last year’s fatalities, even though the breed makes up only about 6.6 percent of the total U.S. dog population.
All told, as The Washington Post reported, animals kill only about 200 people in this country every year – though that number would be higher if you counted those resulting from car crashes caused by deer, moose and other wildlife.
According to the Census Bureau, 2,596,993 Americans died last year. Here are the leading causes:
• Heart disease: 614,348
• Cancer: 591,699
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
• Alzheimer's disease: 93,541
• Diabetes: 76,488
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,227
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 48,146
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773
Last year, 12,942 people had been killed in the United States in a gun homicide, unintentional shooting, or murder/suicide.
In addition, 38,300 died in auto crashes – the deadliest tally since 2008.
The bottom line: Don’t wade anywhere in Florida, especially after dark when there are no-swimming signs posted; and don’t let your kid wander into a wild animal enclosure at the zoo (better yet, don’t visit any zoo that keeps such creatures enclosed, even if they claim to be “preserving” an endangered species).
Don’t poke a hornet’s nest, don’t step on a rattler, don’t pet a strange pit bull and don’t milk a cow unless you really know what you’re doing.
But above all, don’t get into a gunfight or drive while intoxicated or texting.
Stay safe out there.
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