The world is full of dangerous animals, and most animals still live in a Darwinian environment were only the strong survive. Some of the deadliest creatures may not be what you expect, there may be some that you expected to see on the list excluded, and there may be some you have never heard of, but these are the world’s deadliest animals.
Mosquitoes
Copyright Alvesgaspar / (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Although mosquitoes are tiny they’re still one of the world’s deadliest animals. Mosquitoes kill more people every year than any other animal on earth. The World Health Organisation reports that mosquitoes kill over 725,000 people every year. Mosquitoes carry several diseases, including yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, and malaria. One of thr main reasons mosquitoes are dangerous is because there are so many of them, they are one of the most populous animals on the planet, and can be found in every continent. Some of the diseases don’t have known cures, and malaria kills 20% of it’s victims. One of the most terrifying ways mosquitoes can kill, is in a swarm of over 1 billion mosquitoes, which drain it’s victims of blood in minutes.
Snakes
Snakes kill more than almost any other animal in the world. Every year over 50,000 people are killed by snakes, they are known everywhere to be one of the world’s deadliest animals. One of the most venomous snakes in the world is the inland Taipan. It’s especially suited to killing warm blooded creatures like humans. Just one of it’s bites has enough venom to kill 100 men. The Taipan bites 8 times quickly to hasten the death. Although the Taipan is dangerous it rarely kills humans, because it lives in the Australian outback isolated from civilization. The inland isn’t the only kind of Taipan, there is also the Coastal, and the central.
Dogs
Surprisingly dogs are one of the biggest killers in the world. Dogs kill around 25,000 people every year. Stray dogs can often carry rabies, especially in India. It can be dangerous for people living in areas with high populations of stray dogs. According to the World Health Organisation, 36% of the people who die of rabies are in India. Outbreaks of rabies are commonly caused by unvaccinated stray dogs. Stray dogs tend to avoid conflict with humans, but they often fight with other dogs, and a human in the area may get bitten by one. This can lead to an outbreak of rabies.
Tsetse fly
The Tsetse fly sucks your blood, and transmits a disease called sleeping sickness. It causes it’s victims to experience headaches, joint pain, fevers, vomiting, and even causes your brain to swell. Tsetse are similar in size and appearance to a common housefly. Tsetse flies have a lot of children in their lifetime, they typically produce up to 31 generations in one lifespan. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people are estimated to contract the disease annually, most are in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s estimated that 10,000 people doe from the disease every year.
Crocodile
Copyright Lip Kee / (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Crocodiles are ambush predators, they wait for fish or land animals to come close, and then suddenly attack them. Crocodiles eat a variety of animals, it really depends on the species, as well as the size, and age of the crocodile. Some species mainly eat fish, and some feed on bigger animals like buffalo, or wild boar. Crocodiles will eat most mammals given the opportunity. They won’t go out of their way to hunt a human, but won’t turn their nose up at one that comes too close. Crocodiles kill around 1,000 people every year. Crocodiles are without a doubt one of the world’s deadliest animals.
Hippopotamus
Copyright Alexdi / (CC BY 3.0)
The deadliest large land mammal in the world is considered to be the Hippopotamus. The hippopotamus is a sub-Saharan herbivore. It’s name means river horse in ancient Greek. Hippos have large canine tusks, hairless bodies and can weigh up to 2,900 lbs. The weight of a hippo could crush any human. Hippos are aggressive animals, and is commonly reported to have charged at boats at boats sometimes killing the people inside. Hippos attack humans sometimes without any provocation at all, they are also aggressive towards lions, or crocodiles. Most animals avoid hippos because of their aggressive nature. Hippos kill 500 people every year in Africa alone.
The African Bush Elephant
The African bush elephant is the largest land animal on the planet. It grows up to 13.0 ft tall, and can weigh over 10 tons. Elephants have large tusks, these can grow around 7 inches every year. These elephants have no natural predator, because their immense size makes them an impossible target for most animals, and hard kill for even packs of apex predators. Elephants are herbivores and eat around 500lbs of vegetable daily. Although they are herbivores they have been known to attack humans, and an elephants charge can be incredibly dangerous. Elephants are one of the strongest animals in the world, and could be considered one of the world’s deadliest animals simply because of their brute strength. They aren’t stupid animals, and their intelligence rivals that of some primates. Elephants have excellent hearing and smell, they can even smell their enemies from a mile away making it hard to surprise them.
The African Lion
Copyright Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) / (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Lions strength comes from teamwork. Lions are the only cats that fight in groups known as prides. Prides normally have three males, and around a dozen females. Males at some point will leave the pride to establish their own, by taking on the head of another pride. Lions can grow more than 4.5 ft, and weigh more than 250 kg. It’s not common for lions to hunt human but it does happen. In 1898 28 railway workers were hunted by the Tsavo maneaters, a pair of famous man-eating lions. Lions can run at 50mph and jump 12 feet in the air. There aren’t many animals that can stand up to lions, and ones who do normally try to outnumber them.
Clostridium Botulinum
Clostridium Botulinum is a rod shapes bacterium, and the most potent toxin known to mankind. One teaspoon of this distributed properly could every person in the United States. Botulism poisoning can occur due to preserved or home-canned, low acid food that was not processed correctly. Symptoms include blurred vision, vomiting, and trouble breathing. Clostridium Botulinum is found in every continent all over the world. It’s found in soil brought up from the ocean floor. There is no animal immune to it, and symptoms would start between 1 and 3 days. Botulinum is by far one of the world’s deadliest animals considering it has the potential to end all human life.
Siafu Ants
Siafu are without question the apex of the world’s deadliest animals. Colonies of 50 million Siafu ants will relocate in search of new hunting grounds and kill anything that gets in it’s way. While travelling Siafu ants arrange themselves like an army, with the smaller ants surrounded by the soldier ants. There is no animal these ants can’t kill, they have even been known to kill elephants, and hippos alike, the only option is to outrun them. The ants can sting but rarely do, instead they bite their victims to death continuously until there is nothing left, each bite can be extremely painful. When it comes to larger animals the ants will enter through the mouth make their way into the lungs, suffocating their prey to death.