Most of us in the United States and probably North America have a certain mindset when it comes to dangerous creatures. When asked what our ideas of a dangerous creature was we would probably say lions, tigers and venomous snakes, but there are so many more dangerous creatures on this planet it is almost unbelievable. When one thinks about it you have to wonder how humans made it this far without being destroyed by the wildlife. The earth is a very violent place right down to the smallest creatures and even some of these tiny creatures can prove deadly to man. Some tiny creatures are deadly on their own while others are deadly, because they will swarm you, biting and stinging all the way. One of the deadliest creatures on earth is called the deathstalker scorpion. It is in arachnid which is only 1.1 to 3 inches in length. Its poison is deadly and causes cardiovascular and respiratory dysfunction in anyone it stings. Since it is so small it can creep into places like your bed and you would never know it was there. Lucky for us in this country it lives mainly in North Africa and in the Middle East.

There are some spiders which are incredibly deadly. Most of us think of the most deadly spider as being a black widow, but I am about to tell you there is one which has venom that is twenty times more powerful. It is known as the Brazilian Wandering Spider. It has a Greek name which is Phoneutria. The Greeks knew how deadly it was, because the name Phoneutria means murderous. The venom is so strong it is similar to some of the venom the most deadly snakes have even though it is a much smaller creature. This is not the type of spider which will hide in a dark corner or in a web. It likes to travel around, thus the name wandering spider. This makes it even more dangerous, because no one knows where they might encounter one. Some have been found in crates being shipped to different parts of the world. People have been known to have been bitten when they reached for a piece of fruit which came from another part of the globe, because the spider was hiding in that pile of fruit.

Sometimes creatures are classified as being very dangerous, because they are so tenacious and one of the most fearless is the Honey Badger. The Honey Badger is more like a weasel than another badger. The animal does not have a lot of natural predators. There are a couple of different reasons for this, the first being the toughness of its skin. The second reason is the animal is so ferocious other animals try and shy away from it. Some people have classified this animal as the most dangerous animal on earth even though it is not very big. Tenacity and fearlessness account for this pick, but I can’t help but feel some of the bigger animals are more dangerous.

There is no doubt one of the most dangerous animals on the planet is the Polar Bear. Several things make this creature extremely dangerous. One of those things is its size. An adult polar bear can weigh more than 1,500 pounds. These bears can reach over 8 feet tall. But there is a lot more to a polar bear than just that. A polar bear’s skull is extremely tough, so tough bullets can bounce off of it. It’s heart can take a pounding and these bears have been known to live and continue their attack for over five minutes after their hearts have been destroyed by bullets. I personally knew someone who was stationed in the U.S. Army in Alaska and was attacked by a polar bear. He emptied his rifle with fourteen rounds into the bear, but unfortunately it didn’t stop the bear and it killed him. A bear is a very tough animal to take on and once it goes after you it doesn’t usually stop. Some people have given advice which states you should make believe you are dead when a bear goes after you. I don’t know if this works, but under the circumstances you doesn’t seem to have much to lose.

When we talk about deadly animals I’ll bet you never think of snails. We actually should think about snails, because there is a particular snail named the Cone Snail which is so deadly just one drop of its venom can kill twenty humans. It takes just a few minutes after you are stung by this snail before your dead. There is no doubt it is one of the deadliest creatures on the planet. Since we are on the subject there happens to be more than twelve hundred species of venomous fish in the ocean and we are at a point where we suspect there are a lot more types of fish in the ocean than we know about. The Stone Fish is easily mistaken for a rock lying on the seabed. If a stone Fish attacks a human, the human has about ten minutes to try and get the venom out of his system. The stone Fish has been listed as one of the most venomous fish in the world.

One of the most dangerous animals in the world is the Komodo Dragon. We don’t hear about too many attacks by this lizard on people, but there certainly have been some. The problem with the Komodo Dragon bite is the lizard has so much bacteria and germs in its body that the bite usually kills. Recently this fact has been disputed by some scientists. There is a story about some sailors who were in a shipwreck and managed to fight their way through attacking sharks and when they got onto land and thought they were out of danger, a pack of Komodo Dragons attacked them and they had to fight for their life. Most scientists still believe the bite of the Komodo Dragon is deadly and will cause infections which are almost never reversible.

Yes I have to admit if we are talking about the lions and tigers most people think of when we talk about deadly animals they too can be very deadly. There are stories about a pair of tigers hunting railroad workers in Asia and bringing down about thirty of them before a hunter, who was hired by the railroad, was able to kill them. Yes they can be very deadly indeed, but the other animals I mentioned are just as deadly in their own way and maybe even more deadly in some cases.