For the first 11 years of my life I grew up in southern California in the desert, and my parents would let me go flip rocks and catch whatever I wanted and bring it home, and to this day I can't believe they never once said to watch out for rattlesnakes. I used to catch lizards everyday and bring them home. Not one time did I flip a rock and find a rattlesnake. I always wanted to find one though.
Years later, my wife and I were in Louisiana, and I looked in every still water, creek, river, etc. hoping to see a gator, and not one time did I find one of those either. So I am either the worst hunter of dangerous game, or the luckiest.