What is the most dangerous animal in the world?

Which is the most dangerous animal species in the world? There is a surprising answer to this. It is not the great white shark (fewer than 10 deaths per year worldwide), a type of snake, lion or tiger, a type of spider or a jellyfish. It is a small mosquito called Anopheles. The Anopheles mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, it transmits serious diseases, especially malaria.

Almost all cases of malaria in humans are caused by bites from the Anopheles mosquito. It is estimated that up to 1 million people in the world die of malaria alone every year, many of them in Africa.
The most dangerous animal in the world transmits the pathogen (a so-called plasmodium) from person to person. There are various malaria pathogens, the most dangerous is the unfortunately common Plasmodium falciparum.

Image: © Kletr — Fotolia.com

The malaria mosquito Anopheles is also found in southern Europe and occasionally in my home Germany. However, there are generally no malaria pathogens here. However, there have also been a few cases of malaria in Central Europe. Anopheles mosquitoes infected with malaria sometimes fly on airplanes as “stowaways” and thus also reach central Europe.

Snakes kill at least 50,000 people a year on earth. Snakes kill a particularly large number of people in India.

Cobras kill many people every day

Worms, including the tapeworm, also kill thousands of people a year. Almost all of these dangerous animals kill, especially in poor, tropical or subtropical countries. Of course, large predators such as tigers, lions, crocodiles and sharks also kill people. However, the number of victims of mosquitoes or worms is significantly higher. Jellyfish are responsible for more than 100 deaths worldwide every year. Very dangerous jellyfish such as the box jellyfish live particularly in Australia and Asia. European predators such as the brown bear or the wolf rarely kill people. But they are still among the dangerous animals on earth.

Spiders and scorpions are examples of other life-threatening poisonous animals. Scorpions kill more than 1000 people every year on earth, spiders probably slightly less. There seem to be a particularly high number of scorpion victims in Mexico. The Sydney Funnel Web is an example of a deadly spider in Australia. But wandering spiders (South America and Brazil), black white spiders (USA) and other species of spiders also pose a mortal threat to humans.

In Germany, the wood tick is considered the most dangerous animal. It is the well-known tick species that transmits dangerous diseases. These are particularly Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE).

The list is not complete, unfortunately there are many other dangerous animal species in the world.