The Deadliest Animal in the World

[RandySF]

What would you say is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Sharks? Snakes? Humans?

Of course the answer depends on how you define dangerous. Personally I’ve had a thing about sharks since the first time I saw Jaws. But if you’re judging by how many people are killed by an animal every year, then the answer isn’t any of the above. It’s mosquitoes.
When it comes to killing humans, no other animal even comes close.

What makes mosquitoes so dangerous? Despite their innocuous-sounding name—Spanish for “little fly”—they carry devastating diseases. The worst is malaria, which kills more than 600,000 people every year; another 200 million cases incapacitate people for days at a time. It threatens half of the world’s population and causes billions of dollars in lost productivity annually. Other mosquito-borne diseases include dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis.

There are more than 2,500 species of mosquito, and mosquitoes are found in every region of the world except Antarctica. During the peak breeding seasons, they outnumber every other animal on Earth, except termites and ants. They were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during the construction of the Panama Canal. And they affect population patterns on a grand scale: In many malarial zones, the disease drives people inland and away from the coast, where the climate is more welcoming to mosquitoes.

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year. Mosquitoes kill 50,000 times as many people, but if there’s a TV channel that features Mosquito Week, I haven’t heard about it.

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https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week

[ZombieHorde]

1. I would have guessed human. nt

[Flying Squirrel]

2. A close second nt

[beam me up scottie]

3. If you judge by intent humans are the worst.

Mosquitoes and the other animals on the list are just doing what they need to do to survive.

Humans kill out of malice and for fun and profit.

[mdbl]

4. why i buy guns

to protect agenst dem ma-skeeters.

[BlueJazz]

5. !!

[JesterCS]

6. I bet.....

|

[KittyWampus]

7. Where I live on Long Island, the habitats for mosquito eaters has been devastated>>>

PLUS- marshy areas that should have been left to Nature have been developed and then the people living there want something done about the mosquitos.

The county (townships?) spray toxic chemicals supposedly to kill off mosquitos but scientists say in reality it has very little effect, but it makes some residents feel better.

[B Calm]

8. I survived a savage attack from a swarm of mosquitoes in Northern Minnesota, they are killers!

[TreasonousBastard]

9. I'm curious about those 500 hippo deaths...

and 50,000 snakebite deaths freaks me out.

Skeeters, though, are something we think about as just an annoyance, and forget about past horrors like yellow fever and present horrors like malaria, encephalitis and west nile.

I heard the latest number is over a million deaths a year from mosquito bites.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Hippos are the deadliest of the African megafauna.

Lions and crocs get more press, but bad-tempered hippos kill more people. They spend a lot of time semi-submerged, and it's all too common for fishing canoes to collide with them, tossing the fishermen in the water with the angered hippo. Hippos are pretty unstoppable when they get going (they can run up to 19mph, and weigh 3000+ lbs), and they have huge, deadly tusks. Most humans killed by hippos have multiple, deep punctures of the abdomen and/or chest cavity, or at best, profusely bleeding wounds.

The hippo's jaw is powered by a large masseter and a well-developed digastric; the latter loops up behind the former to the hyoid.[9]:259 The jaw hinge is located far back enough to allow the animal to open its mouth at almost 180°.[12]:17 A moderate folding of the orbicularis oris muscle allows the animal to achieve such a gape without tearing any tissue.[32] On the National Geographic Channel television program, "Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr", Dr. Brady Barr measured the bite force of an adult female hippo at 8,100 newtons (1,800 lbf); Barr also attempted to measure the bite pressure of an adult male hippo, but had to abandon the attempt due to the male's aggressiveness.[33] Hippopotamus teeth sharpen themselves as they grind together. The lower canines and lower incisors are enlarged, especially in males, and grow continuously. The incisors can reach 40 cm (1.3 ft), while the canines reach up to 50 cm (1.6 ft).[31] The canines and incisors are used for combat and play no role in feeding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus

[randr]

10. Interesting omission

Counts are based on how many humans other species kill not how many of the other species humans kill.
This would put humans over the top as most dangerous, way over the top!