There are a lot of dangerous animals in this world. Some people have experienced being hit by one of these animals.
1. AFRICAN ELEPHANT
The African Elephant is by far known as the largest animal on land. These intelligent plant eaters aren’t dangerous when left alone but conflicts between humans & elephants can lead to deadly attacks.
WHEN ELEPHANTS ATTACK
Elephants are typically peaceful animals, but they can be deadly when they are defending themselves, their young or their territories. During mating season, old male go to musth (pronounced as “must”) and they become very aggressive and dangerous. Elephants attack other animals and humans by charging (as fast as 30 mph ), goring with their tusks with deadly force. As humans take away more elephant habitats and harm more animals, elephants attack more often. African and Asian elephants together kill about 500 people every year.
If one charging elephant is dangerous, an elephant stampede is off the scale.
HANDY TRUNKS
An elephants trunk can do nearly everything a human hand can do, and more. It can pick up objects as large as a tree trunk or as small as a blade of grass. It can even spray water as well. Elephants even use their trunks to communicate with each other, by sound and touch. They also use their trunks to smell things. Their trunks are even used as weapons.
THAT’S WILD
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Loxodonta Africana
LENGTH: 25 ft (7.6 m)
HEIGHT: 13 ft (4 m)
WEIGHT: 7 tons (6.4 t)
LOCATION: Southern and Central Africa
2. BENGAL TIGER
This tiger is becoming extinct. It is also the biggest member of the cat family. More than half of all wild tigers are bengal tigers. Tigers hunt large mammals like deers and wild pigs. In areas where human activity has taken away tiger habitat and food, the biggest cats may prey on livestock or even people.
Tigers have the longest canine teeth of any predator on land. The teeth can measure up to 3 inches, 7.6 cm in length. As long a human middle finger.
STRIPED TIGER
Tigers hunt by stealth and surprise, either waiting in ambush or silently stalking an unsuspecting deer or pig. The striped coat makes the tiger nearly invisible in tall grass or trees. With a rush and a leap, the tiger slams into its prey and drags it to the ground with 4-inch (10 cm) claws. A bite to the neck kills smaller prey. With larger prey, the tiger clamps its canine teeth on the animal’s windpipe until it suffocates.
A running tiger can hit a top speed of 35 mph (56 kph), but it can’t keep that pace up for very long. When stalking or waiting in ambush, the tiger needs to be within 100 feet (30.5 m) of its prey before charging.
THAT’S WILD
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Panthera tigris tigris
LENGTH: 9 ft (2.7 m), nose to tail.
WEIGHT: up to 400 lbs. (181 kg)
LOCATION: India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh
3. BLACK WIDOW SPIDER
Drop for drop, a black widow spider’s venom is more powerful than a rattlesnake. Luckily for humans, this spider is shy and will bite a person only in self-defence. It’s bite causes swelling muscle pain, and temporary paralysis, but usually not death. Still, the venom is fatal to one out of every 25 people bitten.
DANGEROUS FEMALES
Only female black widows are dangerous to humans. They are shiny black or sometimes brown, with a red hourglass shape on their undersides. Males are smaller and lighter brown.
BUG KILLER
Whether or not, a black widow’s bite is fatal to human, it’s certain death for the spider’s prey. The black widow waits in hiding by its web until a fly, beetle, or other insect gets trapped in the sticky mesh. The spider rushes out, imprisons its prey in a cocoon of silk, then punctures the insect with its fangs and injects the deadly venom.
WATCH OUT
People are most likely to come across black widows in places like the corners of basements, barns, and garages. Before indoor plumbing, many black widow bites happened when the victim accidentally sat on the spider in the outhouse.
THAT’S WILD
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Latrodectus mactans
SIZE: 1.5 in. (3.8 cm)
LOCATION: every continent except Antarctica.
4. CAPE BUFFALO
The cape buffalo is a wild African cousin of the domestic cow. But it’s a bigger and much more dangerous cousin. Cape buffalo are famous for their short tempers and dealy 5-foot (1.5 m) horns.
ARMED WITH HORNS
A cape buffalo's main weapons are their gigantic horns. Both males and females have them. The males horns widen and flatten at the base to form a helmet like-shield (called a “boss.”) on the buffalos forehead. Each curved horn can be as long as 5 feet (1.5 m). Males spar with their horns when competing for mates. These contests are like rituals rather than real fights. But cape buffalos won’t hesitate to use their horns as deadly weapons to protect themselves and others in the herd from predators. There are many stories of big game hunters being gored to death or tosed into the air by angry cape buffalo.
THAT’S WILD
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Syncerus caffer caffer
LENGTH: 11ft. (3.4 m)
HEIGHT: 5ft. (1.7)
WEIGHT: 2 000 lbs. (900 kg)
LOCATION: much of southern America.
