Ask Mike: The deadliest animal
Hey Guys,
Several weeks ago, while at Lake Tahoe, I had a close encounter with a bear. The bear, who I like to call “Killer,” growled at me from inside a dumpster, prompting me to run like a maniac (by the way, running, as I later learned, is the exact opposite of what I was supposed to do).
I escaped the situation unscarred (the bear seemed more interested in the dumpster than me), but the run-in did leave me wondering: What animal is responsible for the most human deaths per year?
According to the Smithsonian Institute, the deadliest animal is none other than the female Anopheles mosquito. Why? They carry malaria, and can “kill more than a million people each year.”
The good people at the Smithsonian go on to list some other interesting record holders in the animal kingdom. The strongest animal is the rhinoceros beetle, which “can lift 850 times its own weight.” The animal with the longest lifespan is the Galapagos tortoise. Several “have lived past age 150.”
But, for the sake of argument, let’s say the mosquito “doesn’t count” as an animal. What would be the deadliest animal then? Opinions vary, but the Straight Dope writes, “the hippo, found today throughout sub-Saharan Africa, is considered by many experts, explorers and Africans to be the most dangerous animal in Africa.”
As for my furry friend, the bear: Only the polar bear ranks among the top ten most deadly animals. And you thought they were so cute…
Thanks for reading,
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really, you were scared by a bear, all you have to do is stand your ground and he will leave you alone. I remember having one in my yard, that I was walking right by so close that I could touch him, and he never attacked me, just don’t attack first, don’t bother the baby and let it eat in peace and you will be just fine. btw I always thought the deadliest animal was the hippo, but I guess you learn something new every day
LMAO!!!! I live in Lake Tahoe dude, the black bears (and all wild life up here basically) will leave you alone if you leave them alone. The most dangerous animal in Tahoe is the Mountain Lions but you won’t see them unless you are deep in the Sierras.. We don’t have grizzlies up here, besides our bears have become so used to humans that they aren’t exactly ‘wild’ anymore.. I mean don’t go up and pet them or anything but there is no reason to run unless you tripped over a cub and a momma bear or something…
We had a black bear on our front porch eating our garbage the other day so me and my boyfriend were talking to it (from the back yard entrance that is..) and telling it to clean up after itself when it was done. It just kinda looked at us, put it’s ears back and kept eating. Then it started walking towards us so we told it to go the other way and it did. I think we annoyed it lol.. Wish he would of cleaned up after himself though…
I would bet that the rat has killed far more people throughout history than any other mammal (except perhaps man)…but that’s sort of like the mosquito. It doesn’t do it by savagely attacking, but by spreading disease. I would also bet that bees kill a lot of people (who are allergic to their stings) every year, and if it turns out that the AIDs virus developed in African primates, as most researches now believe, I guess we’d have to add them to the list.
If I were you I will lay on the ground like dead body. I heard that Bear will not eat dead body. Your story really scare me!
wow!that was interesting
The black bear is pretty safe as long as it doesn’t have cubs around or you get between it and its food.
But mosquitoes don’t kill people — they are just vectors for transmitting disease.
Most dangerous large animal in the United States? Deer! They kill approximately 150 people per year in car accidents. http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/deer-accident-statistics.html
This is followed by bees (50), dogs (30), and spiders (7). http://historylist.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/human-deaths-in-the-us-caused-by-animals/
haha polar bears are pretty scary actually. I know I had a student teacher that used to live in alaska and he said he was hunting one day, and a polar bear ripped through his stomach and his intestines were pouring out so badly he had to go to the hospital. So much for cuddly bears.
Most dangerous animal? Man! We’ve risen to the top of every food chain by our actions.
BTW, rats have been know to kill drunks lying in the streets that they think are dying. So rats count 2 ways, but plague is by far the worst threat from them.
In the US, I agree that deer are far more dangerous than most predators. I saw a professional trapper who handled snakes, alligators, etc, get very nervous when having to trap a dear. Dear can completely stove your chest in with a good rear leg kick killing you quickly and very painfully. Leave Bambi alone!
Wild animals are dangerous and unpredictable. The best course of action is to leave them alone. Generally they will leave you alone.
The most deadliest animal in the planet….
Party animals….
Count the number of drunk drivers and party-related deaths per year will probably out number malaria.
I thought for sure it would be the deer. Just by crossing roads it provokes countless car accidents and over 150 deaths a year but oh well you’re the expert.
omg. dude, just stand ur ground, if that aint working, then just slowly back away from the bear. they are trained as cubs by their mothers to attack prey that runs with their back to them, their neck exposed, DUH. u should know this stuff before u go into bear-infested woods.
I think that the moose is a pretty dangerous animal.Not only because it could ram you with it’s horns but because of car accidents too.I’m not just talking about swerving of the the road either,if you crashed into one in a small car you would crush it’s legs which support like 300 pounds which would then fall onto your car and possibly kill you.
The deadliest ‘thing’ is the box jelly fish. One drop of its venom can kill a million elephants.
Man is the deadliest animal on the planet period.
The million deaths a year from mosquitoes is a drop in the hat when looking @ the potential of man to obliterate itself on any given day.
Human beings have a nasty habit of detaching themselves from the animal kingdom when looking @ the statistical data. I bet if you plugged in all the appropriate data nothing else would even come close.
Any form of the canine or Dog species would be my guess.
The deadliest animal is CLEARLY Wexter, the flying Tyrannosaurous Rex with machine-gun arms from Axe Cop.
I had to laugh out loud when you said you ran like a maniac, too funny. I guess now Pepper spray is the ticket. My mom, 87 has said for years, spit in his eyes!” yeah, ok, ma. I was going to guess Deer for deadly deaths, because of all the car accident. Good Story, Thanks
mike u r so funny…u actually ran from a bear..ur like a funny lil nerd.
This is all stuff any 8th grader should already know.
Cut too many courses in school?
@Blah – We should all be as brilliant as you.
I hunt bears every September to the middle of October. And bait them every august to October. So the bears will not hurt you if you do not mess with them. They are more scared of you then you are of it. If it is a sow with cubs don’t mess with the cubs. -_-
And hippo is the most deadly animal. Mosquito is not a animal its an insect.
the most dangerous animal in the world is us. Homo Sapien
We are the deadliest animal in the world and always will be