There’s some things out there in the wild that people instantly associate with danger such as bears and wolves, but in reality these creatures are less likely to kill you than your kitchen toaster. So here’s a list of some of the scariest animals that pose less of a threat to you than getting struck by lightning.
1) Wild Boar – Average 2 Deaths per year
In reality boars very rarely attack humans and mostly go after dogs that get to close. Most of Europe has a very small boar population and when they do appear its normally in controlled hunting regions. A study conducted in 2012 found that between 1825 and 2012, there was 665 fatalities across both Europe and America.
That’s not to say they don’t attack people, especially when they are in their rutting season between November and January. This is the time they are showing their dominance to secure the best mate, and so become significantly more aggressive and likely to attack anyone who gets to close.
They can run up to 30 mph in short bursts and attack by stabbing their lower tusks into their victims flesh. Using their muscular neck, which often has a span of up to 5 feet, they rip the tusk out sideways and cause massive fast bleeding wounds. The number of deaths is so low as when people normally go into boar areas its for hunting, combined with their massively reduced population.
2) Wolves – 1 death every 5 years globally
The wolf has been the symbol of many leaders and houses throughout history, as well as appearing in numerous fictional shows as a symbol of strength and fear. Today these majestic creatures have been hunted to the point of extinction, with the only true wild packs living in the remote northern regions of Russia and Canada.
The only time someone is killed by a wolf always seems to be in a survival situation. They are not naturally aggressive and prefer to avoid something as big as a human rather than attack. Almost every single documented death from a wolf has happened in one of these very remote regions when the wolves were isolated enough to not recognise humans, and only saw them as just another meat animal.
3) Bears – 6 deaths per year globally
Grizzly bears and black bears both have the strength to slap a human in half, but would rather run than fight. Normally when a bear comes close to a person its out of curiosity rather than aggression, as bears do not naturally attack humans for food. Most bear attacks were the human doesn’t manage to scare it off normally end in them playing dead, or getting knocked out and the bear leaving after the threat to it has been neutralised.
Almost all of the deaths happen in either the US or northern Europe and Russia, though they are still incredibly rare considering dogs kill on average 15 people a year in the US alone. The only exception to this is the polar bear which is the only predatory mammal on earth that actively hunts humans for food. There are other creatures that will kill and eat a person if they have the chance, but only do so out of desperation or from being scared.
The death statistic of 6 people a year does not include the idiots who buy bears as a show of wealth and end up getting attacked by them, nor does it include bears in captivity that lash out as these can no longer be considered “wild”.
4) Sharks – 6 deaths per year globally
In the US there are around 15 shark attacks every year, but only one death occurs every two years. Most of the people who are killed by sharks have provoked them, or got a little to close for whatever reason.
Even though they look scary there are very few species that can be considered “nasty”, with most of them acting like any other fish and going after the food they are used to. Most attacks are nothing but warning bites, with the shark often swimming off after biting someone, giving them time to get to safety. For some comparison of how dangerous these creatures really are, in the US one person will die to a shark every two years, were six people will die from a vending machine falling on them in the same time period.
5) Bee’s and wasps – 15 deaths per year globally
Wasps can be very aggressive but don’t contain anything deadly in their venom, and are nothing more than a painful nuisance. Bees on the other hand can kill anyone who is allergic causing a condition called anaphylaxis which causes people to swell up. Around 8% of people are allergic to stings but normally don’t die as the venom takes a while to get to a stage that causes death.
A simple injection can counteract the venom and is almost always reached in time. As for non allergic deaths it would take around 1500 bee stings to kill someone who weighed 75kg, and since they aren’t normally aggressive and die after stinging someone, this would never happen.
Here’s a list of some things you are more likely to die from than animal attacks:
Lightning – 51 deaths per year in the US alone
Murder – You are over 10,000 times more likely to die from being murdered than from any mammal.
Toasters – Over 700 people are killed each year globally from defective toasters
Icicles – Around 15 people die each year in the US alone, with the number being significantly higher in Russia
Carbon monoxide poisoning – 430 deaths per year in the US alone, mostly from faulty ovens and heaters.