Lightning strikes wildlife biologist Forrest Galante in the Everglades

A biologist shooting a video for some outdoor gear in the Florida Everglades got hurt when lightning struck.

When the lightning struck, Forrest Galante, a wildlife biologist, was filming a video in the Everglades with his photographer Mitch Long.

“And when I say feel it, I mean I felt the boom the flash, obviously the electricity. It was like, right, right there. It was pretty scary,” said Galante.

Suddenly scurrying out of the water, it didn’t take long for Galante to figure out what happened.

“It sort of caught up with me, like I understood what had happened. My legs and butt were really sore. I don’t know why my butt specifically. But yeah, now my hip, my lower body was really, really sore from the experience,” said Galante.

Galante, a world-renowned wildlife biologist and conservationist, said in the future, he is going to listen to his photographer who warned him about the lightning and that he won’t underestimate Florida’s weather again.

“Both of us had the same peculiar symptom of having this very metallic taste in our mouths for several days afterward,” Galante said. “He told me to get out and to quit being an idiot, which is all true, by the way. And as I always do, ‘Shut up, Mitch, we’re fine,’ because that’s our dynamic. And then I got zapped, so I should have listened to him.”

Galante made the point that everyone should be weather-aware when outdoors and interacting with nature.