Biting, impaling, crushing, and poisoning: these are just some of the ways that animals have been known to kill humans.
Did your parents ever tell you that there were more reasons for a creepy creature to be scared of you than for you to be scared of it? Well, that’s not always the case.
Quick, what’s the deadliest animal on our planet? Is it bloodthirsty sharks, or wolves hunting in packs, maybe territorial lions?
The truth is, it’s none of the above. In fact, some of the deadliest animals to humans are the ones we’d least expect: creatures that lurk on dark roads in the middle of the night or who bring back your ball in a seemingly innocent game of fetch.
How many animals kill us to get revenge? What deadly methods do they use? And which creature is responsible for killing one million people every year?
Deer live in forests all over the world. They’re some of the cutest mammals around, but they’re also murderers.
On average, they kill about 100 people every year. But if it makes you feel any better, most of these fatalities result from accidents.
When a deer crosses the road at night and notices a car barreling towards it, all that its fully dilated pupils can see is white. A blinded deer won’t run away. It will stand there until its eyes adjust.
And by that time, the car will probably have already hit it. Deer are heavy creatures with sharp antlers, so when you hit one head-on, they usually take you out with them.
While we’re on the topic of unexpected furry killers, how about your best friends? Dogs.
Causing about 200 human fatalities every year, dogs show that they can also be your worst enemy. In the United States alone, there are 30 deaths by dog bites each year. The most likely culprits are the larger species; known for their loyalty and territorial nature.
And that’s just pet dogs we’re talking about, when we start to look at wild dogs things get even more deadly.
That’s because stray canines pack a little extra something with their bites, it’s called rabies. The World Health Organization figures that over 25,000 people die from rabies every year and 99% of infections come from rabid dogs.
Most deadly animals are believed to act on instinct alone, but that’s not the case with the Cape Buffalo of Africa. These intimidating beasts have gained the nickname of “Black Death,” and they sure know how to hold a grudge.
They attack and kill about 250 people a year, and have been known to seek revenge on hunters who injure them, sometimes years after the initial incident. They stalk, hide from, and ambush their hunters, spearing them with their wide, curved horns. Maybe this is a sign that we should leave these guys alone.
A lot of people are afraid of snakes because of the way they slither around, but really, they should be scared of them because they kill 50,000 people a year. There are two main ways snakes can kill you: they can poison you with their bites, or constrict you to death, depending which species you’re unlucky enough to encounter.
Venomous attacks are much more common and can kill you in as little as 30 minutes. Sure, antivenoms have been created, but they’re not always readily available. So, if you see a snake preparing to strike, you’re probably best to just stay away.
While most of these animals are good at warning us just how dangerous they can be, the most deadly creature out there is rather unassuming.
Coming in with about one million kills per year is the mosquito. That’s right, those tiny, high pitched nuisances that you smack away every summer are responsible for wiping out a good chunk of our population every year.
It’s not the mosquitoes themselves that kill you, but the diseases that they carry. We’re talking malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile virus, and the Zika virus, among many others. On top of that, they’re found in every part of the world, and they outnumber every other animal, except ants and termites. So yeah, wear your bug spray people!
- “10 Animals Most Likely To Kill You” INSH. Accessed January 30, 2019.
- “The Most Deadly Animals” 2019. hardydiagnostics.com. Accessed January 30 2019.
- “Snakes Kill More Than 90,000 Around The World “. 2008. telegraph.co.uk. Accessed January 30 2019.
- “The Pervasiveness Of Dog Attacks By Breed”. Richardson, Thomas. 2017. friedlrichardson.com. Accessed January 30 2019.
- “Deer In The Headlights: Why Do Deer Freeze In Headlights?”. Science ABC. Accessed January 30 2019.
