The World's Most Dangerous Animals. Kevin Baker Baker

      

      The World’s Most Dangerous Animals

      Author: Kevin Baker

      Editing: Jayne Baker

      Article contributors: Jayne Baker, Rebekah White, Octavian Ristea, Max Abramson, Rob, Mary & Dendory

      Copyright 2016 Kevin Baker

      All rights reserved.

      Published for the Internet by eBookIt.com

       http://www.eBookIt.com

      ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2697-6

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

      Only CC images in the public domain, unless otherwise stated, have been used in this book.

      This book is dedicated to my wife Jayne.

      1 – Introduction

      ‘When Animals Attack!’ was one of the highest rated shows aired by FOX in America during the 1990s. Viewers tuned in to see bears, eagles, wolves, sharks, snakes, and even pets attack unsuspecting people who came too close. Part of the phenomenon of such programming seems to be a natural fear that we have of some animals, one so primal that even the possible presence of a potential predator far in the distance may curdle our blood at the thought of the possibility of being eaten alive, injected with a painful venom or perhaps even having a sizeable chunk bitten out of us.

      Human beings have occasionally turned harmless animals into deadly weapons in the past, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq, the West Bank, and Lebanon, where donkeys have been used to carry explosives, occasionally killing policemen and soldiers. In 2003, Palestinians used a donkey to carry out an unsuccessful attack near Jerusalem. PETA director Ingrid Newkirk contacted Yasser Arafat asking him to keep animals out of the fighting. Other than these largely unsuccessful efforts to use animals as weapons, humans have rarely used animals in warfare since horses were replaced with tanks and armored personnel carriers.

      What is it about some animals, however, that makes them seem more dangerous than others? Each time an exotic pet attacks its owner or a passerby in the U.S. for example, the story makes the news and is carried to neighboring states, prompting legislators and city council members to enact ordinances and statutes meant to license or even restrict the ownership of exotic pets. In practice, surprisingly, there is statistically less than one death per year resulting from exotic pet ownership in the U.S. (not including deaths within zoos). In 2003, however, the U.S. Captive Wild Animal Safety Act took effect, banning the sale or transportation of lions, tigers, snow leopards, or other big cats.

      More than 20 Americans are killed by cows (and as many by horses) per year, yet these large herbivores would only usually instill terror into the hearts of very young children. Around five campers and hikers die from rattlesnake bites annually in the U.S., and as many from the black widow spider. Over 30 Americans per year experience attacks by their family pet, and even the occasional deer caught in the headlights kills over one hundred Americans per year on road trips. These are just statistics from the U.S. of course and they will vary from country to country, with different terrains being inhabited by different kinds of animals.

      Incredibly, the most dangerous animal to humans on Earth is the common mosquito, which often carries deadly malaria, that amounts to approximately one million fatalities each year. Of course, people kill far more of each other than wild animals do. By one estimate, governments of the world alone have influenced the killing of 175 million people during the 20th century, averaging almost 2 million deaths per year.

      Yet humans retain primal fears of wild animals that harkens back to the days when shelter could be found in caves, rather than houses and when men held only spears, rather than rifles. In some parts of Africa and South America, rural tribesmen and their families are still frequently attacked and sometimes killed by animals. Polar bears occasionally attack natives of Alaska and Canada, while Australian aborigines have been mauled by dingoes. Tourists visiting many of these untamed frontiers are in much greater danger, as some do not heed the warnings of natives or find themselves too close to a hippopotamus, rhino or lion.

      While the widely known condition of ‘arachnophobia’ is a fear of spiders, ‘ophidiophobia’ is the fear of snakes. People harboring an irrational fear of dogs that can extend into adulthood may be experiencing ‘cynophobia’, which some psychologists believe may be a remnant of the fear of wolves and wild dogs. According to the Calm Clinic, “Evolutionary psychology holds that a fear of dogs evolved in humans as a survival mechanism. Learning to fear and to avoid large predators would have been of use to humans in the days when wild, dangerous and hungry animals were commonplace.”

      Gregory Carey in The Principles of Evolutionary Psychology says that, “Even before our own species evolved, hominid youngsters had to learn very quickly what types of animals to avoid. Perhaps the nervous system of an ancient primate ancestor evolved a sensitive period for the acquisition of fear responses to dangerous animals, and we inherited that mechanism.” Such scientists propose that youngsters amongst our ancestors learned both from their group and their early experiences which animals they needed to fear as a survival trait. This trait may be so deeply rooted that humans are predisposed to develop such phobias before reaching adolescence. In fact, many adults admit to some long held phobia that they have had longer than they can remember, usually not triggered by any particular previous life event.

      Snakes, spiders, and dogs top the list for phobias, while bats, bears, and rats remain well represented. “Long ago, spotting a snake (or even a spider) would have been an advantage to a person's survival, according to one study in which adults and children could pick out images of snakes among various non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs and flowers,” writes Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor of LiveScience.

      About one in 20 people possess a strong fear of snakes, and about one person in 30 of spiders. Why is there not a greater fear of the hippopotamus? Surely, the common mosquito kills more humans that all other animals combined, yet the mosquito doesn’t exactly fill us with fear when we see one flying around.

      This book is an overview of animals which can be considered dangerous, or potentially dangerous to human beings. Although most of the animals listed in this book would only become dangerous if they felt threatened in some way. It also goes without saying that dangerous animals should be protected and not wiped out just because evolution has granted them skills where they would win a fight if we picked one against them.

      2 – Box Jellyfish

      Chironex Box Jellyfish. Image author: Guido Gautsch.

      According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, 20-40 people die from box jellyfish stings in the Philippines alone each year. Box jellyfish frequent Australia’s northern oceans throughout the entire year, but are more prevalent in the wet season between November and April. Although they show many characteristics of typical jellyfish, they are actually classed as not being a true jellyfish.

      True jellyfish usually just drift around, but the box jellyfish has been recorded as moving at speeds of up to six metres per minute. Since box jellyfish have 24 eyes, in four sets, they can detect and attack anything around a 360 degree zone of vision. Their eyes are defined as ‘ocelli’ meaning simple eyes that can only detect light and dark.

      Small fish and invertebrates, such as prawns, are the box jellyfish’s choice of prey. Even the most venomous jellyfish in the world is not without its own predators to worry about however, as blue swimmer crabs, rabbitfish, batfish and butterfish are all a threat. Sea turtles are the box jellyfish’s most fearsome predator as they are remarkably unaffected by the