20-year-old Colorado resident Dylan McWilliams loves to relax in nature, but nature itself seems to be offended for something.
In just three years the guy was "hugged" by a bear, bitten by a shark, and then attacked by a rattlesnake. Fortunately, everything went without serious injuries.
The last attack happened in April 2018 when Dylan was bodyboarding in Hawaii. Bodyboarding is a type of surfing only while lying on the board.
McWilliams was safely sailing off the coast of Kauai when he felt something hit him hard on the leg.
“I immediately noticed a shark swimming below me in the water column. My reaction was lightning fast, I instinctively kicked her several times, and then swam to the shore as quickly as possible. Seven stitches were then applied to the wound, and it was assumed from the teeth marks that it was a tiger shark."
Sharks sometimes attack Hawaii vacationers, including tiger sharks. But according to Professor George Burgess, director of the shark program at the University of Florida, the chance of being attacked by a shark in US waters is only 1 in 11.5 million. In comparison, the chance of the average American being struck by lightning is 1 in 5 thousand. …
But Dylan McWilliams was not just the shark's choice. Last July, when he went camping in his native Colorado, a black bear snuck into his tent and bit him on the head while Dylan slept. The guy miraculously managed to escape from the bear's embrace and bleeding to escape from the animal.
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Later, the park rangers found the bear on the tracks, made sure that there were traces of human blood on its paws, and then they put the bear to sleep, recognizing it as dangerous for people. McWilliams himself escaped with a laceration on his arm and forehead, which had 9 stitches.
“The North American black bear that attacks humans is usually hungry,” says writer Gordon Grice, author of two books on animals that are deadly to humans. “But such attacks are now very rare, as bears have long learned that there is usually a lot of other food next to a person, for example from trash cans. Between 1900 and 2009, only 14 people were officially killed by the claws of bears in US national parks.”
This series of dangerous animal attacks on Dylan McWilliams began in 2015. Dylan was still a teenager, but already loved traveling. When he went camping in Utah, he was attacked by a rattlesnake and bit in the leg.
The reckless teenager was so sure that the bite was not dangerous that he decided not to go to the hospital. He was lucky, having been ill for several days, he completely recovered. The odds of being bitten by a venomous snake in the United States are estimated to be 1 in 37,500. (The odds of dying in a car accident are much worse at 1 in 112).
“He's one of the most unfortunate guys on the planet,” says Professor Burgess. “Why is he so unlucky? Since each event is independent, the chance that they will happen to the same person one after another is approximately 1 in 893.35 quadrillion."
McWilliams himself does not really think about his bad luck. He is sure that he just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and does not want to deprive himself of the joys of life.
“Despite everything that has happened, I will still go hiking, swim in the ocean and try to track down a rattlesnake,” Dylan says.
