• Question: can animals kill humans

    Asked by to Thon, James, Natalie, Shaylon on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Shaylon Stolk

      Shaylon Stolk answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Lots of animals can, but the #1 killer is actually the mosquito! They transmit lots of disease, and infect over 700 million people every year.
      There are also quite a few accidental deaths. For example, people who step on venomous snakes or sea creatures.
      Some deaths occur when people provoke an animal into self-defence. For example, quite a few people are killed every year when they bother calfs and are attacked by the momma cow who thinks her baby is in trouble. The same for bears, dogs, and even some large birds of prey.
      Finally, there are a few predators– bears and large cats– that will prey on humans on purpose. However, these attacks are extremely rare and usually only happen if the animal is starving.

    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Shaylon’s got it right – plenty of animals can kill humans and it happens in one of several ways

      1) The animal accidentally kills someone (e.g. by transferring a diease like malaria or bilharzia)
      2) Animals kill humans because they feel threatened
      3) Animals kill people because they mistake them for food – this is how most shark attacks happen
      4) Animals deliberately kill humans for food (very rare, often in cases of starvation)

    • Photo: Natalie Pilakouta

      Natalie Pilakouta answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Shaylon and James already gave you great answers so I don’t have much to add here, other than to say that in many cases, humans are actually more dangerous to animals than the other way around. Humans are a threat to many animals either directly or indirectly (for example by causing changes in the animals’ environment, like pollution and deforestation).

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