We awoke early to discover a raccoon drinking from our can of orange juice, which it had tipped over on our makeshift table at the base of the mountain. The reality is, stingrays are usually passive creatures that only sting if they feel threatened, and even then, they’re only responsible for an average of one to two human deaths a year. These animal species are so gross, they’ll make your skin crawl. All rights reserved (About Us). Check out the strangest animal found in each state. That’s an average of one every five years. But this tragedy was a major fluke; its extremely high-profile victim is the reason for the surge in the belief that stingrays are lethal. Mashable crunched the numbers: In 2015, selfies took more lives than sharks. But maybe take out some insurance before going ahead! Spiders. Click Here to see the Complete List of Places You're Most Likely to be Attacked by a Shark in the U.S. With those odds, you are more likely to be killed by a bear, a dog, or a tornado than a shark. This doesn’t mean that they’re completely harmless, though. Helping biologists many years ago to tag collared bears, I volunteered to go into its bed and help drag out the slumbering behemoth. 10 Crocodiles. Average Annual Death Toll: 475,000 As far as mammals go, humans are the most dangerous adversary—to other humans. Into the house with Elmer until dark. Tigers are recorded to have killed more people than any other big cat, and have been responsible for more human deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal. He had one leg and a pair of crutches that hung from his shoulders on straps that appeared as if it were Rube Goldberg's top-shelf work. While vultures do seek out wounded or dying animals, the vulture won’t kill them itself. After plenty of skinned knees, frozen hands and orange juice burps we were topside on our mountain battleship. In fact, it's more likely that a human would bite and kill you. The cost is $10 per person. However, fatalities from vampire bats, and bats in general, are pretty rare. Only North America possesses all of these animals so let’s examine the statistics. There will be a number of other waterfowl hunting prizes. Steve Irwin tragically died when a stingray barb pierced his heart in 2006, but deaths from … The limb held a nest that housed a baby bird. Potential predators see that pattern of stripes and stay away. Please don't think of them as cute and cuddly. He had lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and had been down in the dumps for some time. These other animals are more likely to kill you. They can disembowel you or remove your face in an instant. https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/most-dangerous-shark.htm These birds are ominous-looking enough as it is; their tendency to hover around creatures that are dead or dying, in both the wild and the media, doesn’t help their reputation. According to the numbers presented in the infographic, selfies are indeed more dangerous than sharks. That’s fewer than the number caused by significantly less feared creatures like ants, bees, and, believe it or not, freshwater snails. Get ready to pop that magnum of bubbly for New Year’s! I called my aching leg a wimp and the leg and I sought several additional peaks. He was at a party one night when a stranger asked him if he wanted to climb a mountain the next day. The human mind might consider the likes of sharks, bears and lions as the most dangerous members of the animal kingdom. What about wolves? Find out some more animals that you didn’t realize were more dangerous than sharks. But many types of spiders—even some of the biggest and scariest-looking ones—don’t often bite and certainly can’t kill you. Of course, people are the most dangerous animals of all. Sharks, bears, and spiders may have gained a reputation as ruthless killers, but they really aren't that deadly when you crunch the numbers. The 750,000 black bears of North America kill less than one person per year on the average, while men ages 18-24 are 167 times more likely to kill someone than a black bear. Luckily it hit the edge of the roof, denting it, and cracking rather than bursting the windshield. Champagne Corks. Almost no animal could escape a chase by a Lion. A night overcast left heavy dew which froze. (They carry a deadly disease called schistosomiasis.) The term “pit bull” can actually refer to as many as four different breeds of dogs, and, as such, many statistics citing pit bulls as overwhelmingly responsible for attacks are iffy at best. DUCKERS SHOOT: Western Mass Duck Hunters Association will meet July 22 at George Leclerc's in Belchertown for a shoot/picnic. Shoots will be from a layout blind, a boat, and other types of set-ups to simulate an actual waterfowl hunt. But then you hear about a bear running across the road hitting a cycle, and the rider getting killed. A couple of cars passed her by, and irritated, she hoisted her sweater to full staff as a pickup truck was about to pass by. I called it a "no-go" day but was overruled by the kids, who said we had traveled too far to travel home without Katahdin's tippity top soil on our hiking boots.