German tourists

Nothing against Germans, but they seem to find themselves in wild animal-related predicaments. My friend JS sent me this story about a lady who jumped in the polar bear pool at the Berlin Zoo. I was skeptical at first, thinking maybe somebody had photoshopped the picture and made up the story. But then I checked CNN, and the same (less detailed) story was there.*

Then I started thinking. I remembered that when I was in Australia, a German tourist was eaten by a crocodile while swimming in a river clearly marked with a sign that I'm pretty sure overcomes any language barrier. I remember not feeling sorry for the person because I had just come from a tour in the Outback where it was emphasized that we should really take heed of those signs - they weren't there just to look funny to tourists.

Anyway, then I found this article where a German tourist in Italy was mauled by a pack of 10 wild roving dogs. Fortunately, the mayor of the town stepped in to save her (I wonder if fighting off wild dogs is part of the mayor's job description?). Unfortunately, she's still in critical condition as of March 17.

So I guess this isn't proof that Germans are any more prone to wild animal attacks than anybody else. To be honest, I didn't research any other nationality in the slightest. I just connected a few dots in my head from things I remembered to come to the conclusion that Germans seem to find themselves on the wrong end of the human v. wild spectrum.**

*To be fair, it doesn't say whether this lady was a German tourist, or even German, but I'm since you can see I provide no statistics for this post, I'm choosing to assume she was German.

**Also of note, the first two wild animal events have more in common than the last - they involved what appeared to be not so smart moves on behalf of the human involved in the human v. wild altercation.