A tourist who tried to take a selfie with a deer ended up in hospital after the animal didn’t appreciate his gesture and brutally attacked him.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Gian Carlo Triacca, 42, told Caters News Service of the attack, which occurred while he and his wife Erica were vacationing in Greece.
Footage taken by his wife shows Gian Carlo being approached by deer and other wild animals.
However, things go awry when the tourist tries to take a selfie with one of the deer, reports the New York Post.
“I was taking a photo of a small deer standing in front of me when suddenly a large male deer attacked me from behind,” remembers Gian Carlo.
In the footage captured by Erica, the shirtless tourist is seen posing with a smaller deer as a giant deer quickly approaches.
Suddenly the animal hits him violently with its antlers.
“After it happened, I was so shocked and in a lot of pain,” recalls the holidaymaker, who says he suffered several broken ribs in the attack.
Although he “suffered enormously for several days,” Gian Carlo says he was lucky.
“I recovered with a lot of medicine and ice,” the Mexican resident told the New York Post.
The exact location of the attack was not specified, but Moni Island is known as a refuge for docile deer, Cretan ibex and other wildlife that are the area’s only permanent residents.
Tourists often flock to idyllic islands around the world to see and even feed the animals. However, animal rights activists advise people to keep their distance when watching wild animals.