I went looking for creepy animals and it kept coming up with spiders, so I ran away from that idea.  Too many legs and eyes in that collection.  So, I tried to find the deadliest animals in the world.  I kept getting sent to this article from 2022 though.  Guess you can click the link for spoilers.  I’m just going to do the count down with a recap.  Enjoy!

Common Hippo

He’s back!  The hippo kills around 500 people every year.  This is because they attack boats that enter their area.  People either drown, get bitten by that giant mouth, or flattened by its 3,300 pound bulk.

Elephant

Elephants kill around 500 humans a year as well, but I think exact numbers put the hippo ahead by a bit.  Then again, elephant and human territories are overlapping more and more, which leads to violent conflicts.  Doesn’t take much for a startled elephant to win a fight with a human.

Saltwater Crocodile

Coming in with 1,000 kills, you have this opportunistic ambush predator.  It really isn’t any wonder that a predator this big may look at a human as prey if they see an opportunity.  They won’t go out of their way to eat us, but lurking in the water and seeing an unsuspecting person can be too tempting to ignore.

Ascaris Roundworm

No more large beasts on this list.  We’re getting into the realm of icky and starting with the ascaris roundworm.  This parasite is responsible for 2,500 deaths a year. They get into people through food and drink that is contaminated with human feces.  This leads to a disease caused Ascariasis, which can be lethal.  You will find that many of the upcoming creatures on the list are here because they are carriers of deadly diseases.

Indian Red Scorpion

Edging out the roundworm with 2,600 kills is the scorpion.  Many species aren’t deadly to humans, but there are 25 that are with the worst being the Indian Red Scorpion.  Again, we have an animal that doesn’t go out of its way to kill humans.  Deaths happen usually because the scorpion is accidentally stepped on while a person is barefoot or it is hiding in shoes.

Assassin Bug a.k.a. Kissing Bug

Another creepy crawler, but this one jumps the kill count to 10,000 per year.  Certain species spread Chagas Disease through their bites due to a microscopic parasite.  Not sure why the parasite doesn’t get the credit.  This disease causes congestive heart failure if left untreated.

Saw-Scaled Viper

Not surprised that a venomous snake is somewhere on this list.  People tend to stumble onto these animals and get attacked by accident.  To be fair, 138,000 deaths are caused by all snake species combined.  The saw-scaled viper takes the top spot for mortality due to it being fairly aggressive.  Yet, the inland taipan is the most venomous.  Just avoid all of them to be safe.

Freshwater Snail

Another big jump to just over 200,000 deaths here.  Again, they’re here because they can transmit deadly parasites such as flukes.  Schistosoma is one of the worst flatworms that develop in snails and then get released into the water.  Humans can get infected through their skin, especially if they have cuts. The disease known as ‘snail fever’ is second only to malaria in terms of socioeconomically devastating parasites.

Vitruvian Man

431,000 deaths per year seems really low for humans.  We’re actually the only ones on the list who kill humans on purpose.  It isn’t like the animals hunt us down unless they’re scared or starving.  The diseases don’t infect us while laughing maniacally.  Looking at the number, this is only for homicides.  Doesn’t include wars, accidents, those dying due to not having food or water, those dying because they can’t afford life saving medicine/procedures, and the rest of the list of ways that humans manage to kill their own kind.  There’s a good argument for why we should be the top spot on this list and that’s pretty much because we kill each other intentionally.  Can’t argue with that.

Mosquito

For anyone who didn’t stop at humans, the top killer is the mosquito.  We all know why too.  These guys are massive disease carriers.  This includes malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya.  Due to their ability to infect people so easily and with so many diseases, mosquitoes are responsible for 725,000-1,000,000 human deaths a year.  Guess that does put them either ahead of our species or at least tied for the worst.