Cows, spiders and dogs kill more people in the U.S. than alligators

Alligator attacks on humans can be horrific -- people pulled underwater, limbs thrashing. They are also extraordinarily rare incidents in the U.S.

The attack on Tuesday night at a Disney resort in Orlando was, by all accounts, a parent's worst nightmare. A two-year-old boy standing just inside the water's edge was grabbed by an alligator and yanked under. His father tried to save the boy, but came away with only scratches on one of his hands. 

The toddler's body was recovered on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Orange County Sheriffs Department.

What happened to the boy was rare.

"If you're not actually in the water, chances of getting bitten by an alligator are nearly zero," James Ross, a conservation biologist at the University of Florida, told Mashable. 

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Florida, home to around 1.3 million alligators, is believed to have more human-alligator interactions than any other state. And yet alligators are only known to have killed 24 humans (including the latest casualty) there since such data was first recorded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in 1948.

That's an average of 0.35 deaths per year.

By contrast, more than 1,000 Floridians -- who are still reeling from a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando in which a gunman left 49 dead -- were killed by a firearm in 2015, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The total number of alligator deaths per year in the U.S. is unclear, according to alligator experts. However, it is thought to be far smaller than the toll from spiders, which kill around seven people each year in the United States. Cows kill about 20. Dogs, known as "man's best friend," kill an average of 28. 

And non-fatal alligator attacks in Florida aren't common, either. The commission has recorded just 383 such attacks since 1948. Nor have these attacks increased significantly in the past few years, even as the state's population has soared. 

According to the commission, Florida averaged 10 "major" and "minor" attacks each year from 2011-2015, and just over 9 such attacks each year from 2006-2010. 

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That means that if you're a Florida resident, your chances of getting attacked by an alligator during any given year are about 0.0000005 percent. A vacationer that spends only a few days at one of the state's many attractions, such as Disney World, has even lower odds.

Attacks are more common at night

But there are circumstances that elevate the risk of an alligator attack, as was the case with the fatal alligator attack on Wednesday. 

Full-grown alligators are known to eat animals such as raccoons and opossums, which are similar in size to a toddler. When they do go after those animals, it's often in very shallow water, such as where the toddler was before the attack. 

Alligators are also more active at particular times of day and night. 

"They're most likely to take prey at the water's edge in the morning or just before dark," Greg Erickson, a professor of biological science at Florida State University, told Mashable. 

The toddler was grabbed at around 9 p.m. 

Conservationists worry that one day, after a horrific attack such as the incident in Orlando, people will respond with calls for alligator removal, Ross said. 

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But that has yet to happen, perhaps because alligators and people have divided up much of Florida. 

Alligators, Ross said, are all over the state. Any lake, pond or roadside puddle might have one. 

Yet they're also generally shy, Erickson said, and they're "very uncomfortable on land."

As a precaution, though, Disney World has temporarily closed its beaches. 

"They're incredibly reclusive animals," Erickson said. "Alligators are really not a major danger in the state of Florida."

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