[pct-l] interesting facts

[bluebrain at bluebrain.ca]

Stats are tricky!  These are just raw numbers and don't speak to the
proportion of the population that's exposed to these various critters.

Bees are everywhere, all year round.  Most of us will get at least one bee
stings over the course of our lives.  There are plenty of varieties of
deadly snakes (four in the continental US) and some share habitat with
humans.  There's no shortage of poison spiders around the world ...
funnel-web, red-backs, brown recluse, black widow, to name a few that can
kill humans.  Dogs are plentiful and live almost exclusively in human
country.

So, all in all, a large percentage of the human population is exposed to
bees, snakes, spiders and dogs, while relatively few of us, comparatively
speaking, spend time in bear country.

There are also billions of these other creatures, while there are really
very few bears, even when in bear country.

Interesting stats for sure, but unfortunately not a good representation of
relative risk.

Still, good numbers to reassure friends and family when they express worry
about trail safety.  ;-)

Cheers,
Paul

> For every human death from a bear,
> 17 people die from spiders bites
> 25 people die from snake bites
> 67 people die from dog attacks
> 180 people die from bee stings.