An American man who was bitten by a shark in Hawaii has also previously been attacked by a rattlesnake and mauled by a bear.

In less than four years, Dylan McWilliams, from Colorado, has had three very unlucky encounters with deadly animals.

The 20-year-old was bodyboarding in the ocean off Kauai on Thursday, when what he believed to be a tiger shark between six and eight feet long bit his leg.

Mr McWilliams, who says he has worked as a survival training instructor, was able to swim around 30 metres back to shore, where a bystander called paramedics.

"I didn't know if I lost half my leg or what," he said.


He received seven stitches in hospital.

Last year, Mr McWilliams had to have nine staples in his scalp after he was mauled by a black bear at a Colorado summer camp.

Mr McWilliams was asleep outside when the bear started biting the back of his head.

He defended himself by punching the bear and poking it in the eye, causing it to loosen its grip.

"I guess I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time," he said.

Image: Dylan McWilliams shared pictures of the shark bite on Facebook

The two attacks followed his encounter with a rattlesnake during a Utah hiking trip a few years earlier.

The bite was not severe, he told the Honolulu Star Advertiser, and he was only ill for a couple of days.

Mr McWilliams says his parents are grateful he is still alive.