Posted on 06/03/2018 7:31:16 AM PDT by marktwain
In online discussions of bear attacks, it is not unusual for people to claim that a person is more likely to be killed by lightning than to be killed by a bear. That is true, in a gross sense. You are also more likely to die of a heart attack or to be murdered than to be killed by a bear when you use the entire United States population as a measure.
This comparison is disingenuous. It is easy to avoid being killed by a bear, simply by staying out of areas where there are bears. Lightning strikes occur all over the United States. Significant bear populations are limited to a fraction of the United States. The relative danger of bears and lightning depends a great deal on where you are.
I looked up lightning deaths in areas where there are significant bear populations. What I found was startling. Wyoming is rated as the most dangerous state for lightning deaths, per capita. Wyoming is also one of the top states for fatal bear attacks.
During the decade from 2004-2014, there were two deaths from lightning strikes in Wyoming. During the same period, four people were killed by bears. At least for that decade, for Wyoming, bears were twice as likely to be the cause of death as lightning. The number of people killed by bears has been rising in the last two decades, while the number of people killed by lightning is falling.
Consider Alaska. Lots of bears, and lots of lightning. But Alaska has had zero, zilch, nada people killed by lightning since 1990! During the same period, 1990 to 2014, 16 people were killed by bears in Alaska.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
who would win, a grizzly or a silverback gorilla...?
Obviously what we need are LightningBears.
And the stats for Florida and Minnesota?
I’ll bet that lightning win in those two states.
Even if you restrict it to just golfers struck by lightning or golfers verses alligators.
Stats are fun!
I’ve always read info that placed Florida as the lightning capital...
...or lightning-spray...
Oh darn. I thought it was a football vs hockey thread.
I think that would be my County! ≡≡8-O
Actually, a full evening of a "lightning show" drew me here. Great stuff!
I suppose being in bear territory in a thunderstorm near a SUV, while the wife is menstruating is about as dangerous as it can get?
The Chicago Bears’ secondary leaks like an old amphib.
(thanks to the OLD SNL for the line.)
I guess they are about the same. They both will bruin your day.
My county also may have the most "Bear Crossing" signs displayed—too!
Grizzly, paws down.
Hockey wins!
The big difference seems to be grizzly bears.
Black bears kill about the same number of people as grizzlys, but there are many times as many black bears as grizzly bears.
In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) there are about 690 grizzly bears. In 2017, 35 were killed either in direct self-defense (19) or by game management after they were found to be a direct threat to human life and property.
In one year, one of twenty grizzlys had to be killed as direct threats to human life and property.
Black bears seem to learn to avoid humans, given plenty of hunting pressure.
Grizzly vs gorilla... sounds like a typical Quora question, LOL.
Would rather take the lightning hit it’s over in a flash and not the pain of having skin and guts ripped open.
“Bears vs. Lightning: Which is more Deadly?”
Getting hit by lightning while being attacked by a bear is the most deadly.
The average male gorilla weighs about 450 lbs, the average male grizzly weighs 800 lbs. Do the math.
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