This will make you think twice before casually setting up a paper-thin shelter in the wild. A 16 year-old boy in Minnesota, Noah Graham, was severely bitten on the back of his head while chatting with his girlfriend last weekend. He has an 11 centimeter wide gash and 17 staples to show for it, but luckily walked away with his life. The two were camping with a group of friends on Lake Winnibigoshish when the rare attack happened.

The Department of Natural Resources is waiting on test results from a wolf that was found and killed Monday to see if it has rabies. The wolf that was found had a jaw deformity that would have prevented it from hunting and forced it to scavenge for other sources of food. Officials from the DNR believe that this is the first ever serious injury wolf attack in Minnesota. After their arrival, and along with Leech Lake Tribal Police, they set up perimeters and traps around West Winnie campground where the attack took place.

At one point the wolf was spotted, but an official who fired his pistol at it missed. Later, the wolf was caught by a perimeter trap. DNA tests performed during the necropsy will determine whether it was the same wolf that attacked Graham. According to The Department of Natural Resources, there have been two fatal wolf attacks in the last ten years. One was in northern Canada and the other in Alaska.

The Bemidji Pioneer reports that his other friends “slept through” the blood-curdling screaming and kicking it took to get the wolf detached from his head and as for his girlfriend, “She ran and got in her jeep right away.” Later he added, to our own collective thoughts, “I won’t be sleeping outside anytime soon.”

Image via Bemidji Pioneer