A series of alligator and shark attacks in the US has triggered warnings that people are putting themselves at risk by encroaching on predators’ territory.

Last week, as the United States celebrated the 4th of July weekend, a New York beach went wild when a 15-year-old boy was attacked by a shark.

The attack happened on the same stretch of Long Island coastline that saw six shark attacks over the course of just three weeks last year.

The latest incident, which the teen survived, occurred the same day she nearly lost herself off Navarre Beach near Pensacola, Florida, with footage of a shark fin circling ominously in the cerulean blue water as frightened witnesses screamed at people: ‘Get out! Out of the water.’

But sharks aren’t the only predator terrifying Americans going about their business.

Florida beachgoers were seen running from the ocean yelling ‘get out of the water’ as a massive shark lurked in the shallows leading up to Independence Day.

A series of grisly alligator attacks, some of them deadly, have also made headlines in recent months, and experts warn more are sure to follow.

Alligator attacks in Florida have increased 66 percent in recent years, from six a year between 1971 and 1986 to 10 a year between 1987 and 2017.

Recent victims include 13-year-old Gabriel Klimis, who was mauled by an alligator in Orlando last month.

And on Tuesday, a 69-year-old woman was mauled to death by a 10-foot alligator on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, while walking her dog.

The woman, whose name has not been identified, was found mutilated next to the alligator, which was guarding its prey.

Last August, 88-year-old Nancy Ann Jackson Becker was killed by an alligator in the same area after she slipped in a pond while doing yard work.

And in February of this year, 85-year-old Gloria Serge was captured and killed by an alligator while walking her dog in Fort Pierce, Florida. Horrifying footage showed the beast leaping out of the water at high speed to kill its victim.

Gloria Serge, 85, was walking her dog by the lake in the Spanish Lakes Fairways community in Fort Pierce, Florida on Monday when an alligator attacked her and dragged her into the water.

Serge (pictured) was a grandmother living in the Spanish Lakes Fairways retirement community in Fort Pierce, Florida, when she was killed by an alligator on Monday.

And while alligators and sharks grab the headlines, experts say the animal most likely to hurt or kill you is a bear, despite its sometimes cuddly reputation.

They warned that more attacks are likely to follow, as humans continue to encroach on the animals’ natural habitats.

Last month, Arizona resident Steven Jackson, 66, was mauled to death by a bear while drinking coffee in a wooded area of Groom Creek in Yavapai County while building a cabin.

The danger posed by bears is evident in a recent study published in PLoS Biology, which tracked and analyzed animal attack statistics over a 70-year period.

It found that from 1950 to 2019, not only did attacks increase over time, but poorer residents in low-income regions were also more likely to be ambushed.

The study, which monitored 5,440 incidents, concluded that while different species and habitats made a difference, “the factors that trigger large carnivore attacks on humans are highly dependent on socioeconomic context.”

This includes a startling statistic that found that 48 percent of victims in the richest countries were attacked during recreational activities, such as hiking and fishing.

By comparison, 89 percent of the poorest victims were attacked while going about their daily lives, such as farming.

Vincenzo Penteriani, an ecologist who contributed to the study, pointed to population growth and the inevitable expansion of cities into natural habitats as one of the driving factors behind the increase in attacks.

“If you combine the reduction of natural habitat with the expansion and expansion of human settlements, it’s almost normal that encounters between large carnivores and humans become more frequent,” Penteriani said. nbc news.

It’s just a matter of probability.

In the case of bears, quaint forest housing developments have brought residents of those areas into the animals’ natural habitat.

Despite the warnings, many do not properly secure their trash cans, and some people even leave food for the wild animals to eat, including the bears themselves.

This behavior will drive the bears back to what the animals know to be an easy source of food and will put the safety of anyone who ends up in their path at risk.

Six shark attacks have occurred in the past year over the course of just six weeks in New York – the site was attacked again by a 15-year-old last week.

While shark and alligator attacks capture the public imagination, experts say bears are the predators most likely to attack and kill people.

It’s a similar story with alligators. While reptilian predators don’t have the same cute cachet as bears, violent attacks on humans come as a result of people encroaching on spaces that have long been the creatures’ natural habitats.

Shark attacks capture the public imagination most of all, probably thanks to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller Jaws. But conservationists take pains to point out that the creatures generally want to avoid human contact, and that any attacks that do occur are likely the result of of a shark mistaking a human for one of its other sources of prey, such as a seal.

On Hilton Head Island, the South Carolina enclave that saw a 69-year-old man killed by an alligator this week, the warm weather and humidity that draw people to live there is what has made the island an alligator hotspot for a long time.

Hilton Head’s human population skyrocketed 88 percent between 1990 and 2010, and has skyrocketed even more since then, putting human residents on a collision course with long-standing animal inhabitants.

Gabriel Klimis (pictured right), 13, was playing with friends in Howell Creek near Orlando earlier this year when he was attacked by the alligator, pictured here.

The bloody remains of the alligator are displayed when it was hunted and killed.

Magnolia Woodhead was left with more than 100 puncture marks on her leg when a shark bit her last month (pictured)

Magnolia Woodhead (pictured right) was nearly killed by an alligator attack off the Florida coast last month.

Florida has seen a similar explosive growth in its human population, which means an inevitable increase in interactions between people and its iconic alligators.

Last month, a 12-year-old girl nearly lost her life when she was attacked by a shark off the coast of Cocoa Beach near Orlando.

Magnolia Woodhead was left with over 100 puncture wounds to her leg, but miraculously survived.

The crisis in the Sunshine State also extends to alligator attacks, which increased from about six a year from 1971 to 1986 to nearly 10 a year from 1987 to 2017, according to Fish and Wildlife data.

Experts said the increase is due to the statewide push in recent decades to boost construction developments and population.

Frank Robb, an alligator researcher, told Fox35: “The more Florida expands, the more people we get into Florida, the more people we keep clogging up here, we’re building in a lot of areas surrounding swampy areas and wilderness areas.”

‘Conflicts like this are becoming more common, but that’s not the alligator’s fault. The alligator doesn’t want to do this and of course people don’t want that kind of interaction,” he added.