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can't be much of a list without including the legendary Beast of Caerbannog! That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on. Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide; it's a killer! He's got huge, sharp-- eh-- he can leap about-- look at the bones!
www.livescience.com/11325-top-10-deadliest-animals.html
The list is mixed, and includes insects, mammals, reptiles, fish, and amphibians, which tends to cloud the issue a bit. Most of us would perhaps be more familiar with mammals. In this case, while polar bears, lions, elephants, and Cape buffalo certainly belong, most surely so do hippos, tigers, leopards, and grizzly bears.
I think it all depends upon criteria as to how you are encountering them and things like are we talking 1 on 1 or does it take into account the fact that some are more prevalently encountered like in africa sawscaled vipers and puff adders will kill many many more than a black mamba due to range etc.
Some of the species noted are just cantankerous opportunity attackers like Hippos.
Others not only view humans as food (saltwater crocs, polar bears) but are universally lethal and in the case of polar bears can actually cross your scent trail 5-10 miles away and then stalk you down over the next 24+ hours and are notoriously stealthy.
In a general sense I will have to go with misquitos due to malaria at #1, I haven't looked at the lists but that would be my vote since they easily kill hundreds of thousands a year.
As far as non-insect I'd go with either the Indian Cobra or Russells Viper which kill thousands (if not tens of thousands) annually in India\Sri Lanka etc.
Others not only view humans as food (saltwater crocs, polar bears) but are universally lethal and in the case of polar bears can actually cross your scent trail 5-10 miles away and then stalk you down over the next 24+ hours and are notoriously stealthy.
Where are humans living near polar bears? Antarctica is "deserted." So, I'm thinking it's only the very top of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia.
In a general sense I will have to go with misquitos due to malaria at #1, I haven't looked at the lists but that would be my vote since they easily kill hundreds of thousands a year.
The second most deadly insect may be the tsetse fly, a scourge of Central Africa that infects thousands with the deadly sleeping sickness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by robertpolyglot
Where are humans living near polar bears? Antarctica is "deserted." So, I'm thinking it's only the very top of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia.
The point being made is that while only a very small number of humans have been killed by polar bears, it is because human/polar bear contact and interaction is very limited because of where they live and because of the tiny human population and travel in their territory. Many of these bears have never seen a human, and when they do, have no instinctive fear of them and may regard them as prey.
the insect order Diptera is the family that causes the most economic damage....your mosquitoes/flies, tse tse flies, tiger mosquitoes/yellow fever etc and numerous other insect vectors. These critters transmit diseases such as leshmaniasis, lyme disease, erlichiosis, encephalitis, malaria, chagas disease, river blindness. Been a while since the ecomomic/medical entomolgy days. thank God for ivermectin....knew the guy who developed it for Merck. Was a veterinary product before its use for river blindness was approved and donated by Merck.
As for mammals the leaders would be deer and squirrels. Deer car collisions and attacks by bucks during the rut and squirrels for all the electrical fires they start.
Tigers are the land versions of sharks, absolute terror....'Tiger Tiger'.. "...who could twist the sinews of thy heart and when thy heart began to beat..... ....did he who make the lamb make thee?" Read 'Tiger tiger' by Wm Blake to understand the almost supernatural nature of a tiger. Blake had to have personal experience to write that poem. A tiger could easily be considered a god and appears almost immune to the laws of nature. You might intimidate a lion but forget about bluffing a tiger.
For a good read, the 'tigers of kaomon' by col jim corbett, rail road constructin in India.
Another good book is ? "the light and the darkness? about two lions who acted as tigers in Africa. Spooky but real stuff to make your hair curl. don't recall the author. someone failed to return my copy so not sure of the title or author.
A friend from SAfrica tells me of all the deaths caused by hippo.
Tiger immune form laws of naute smiles into the below zero wind as it lays comfortably on a mountain top.
Last edited by Kracer; 06-20-2012 at 08:16 PM..
Reason: add photo
I also heard an interesting fact that, when traveling in the thick brush, villigars would wear a mask on the back of their head to create the illusion that they had two faces. The villigars had figured out that tigers only attacked from behind rather than head on so instead of carrying heavy weapons to fend them off, they avoided being attacked in the first place. I thought that was a cool fact :3
I'm not sure that i'd be willing to test that out with bengal tiger trailing me .
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