Image: Nils Rinaldi

1. Mosquito

Did you know mosquitoes are responsible for more than 2 million deaths a year!? The mosquitoes themselves pose little harm, but they carry malaria causing extremely harmful parasites, the culprits behind this high number of deaths.

For this reason, they are classified as one of the most deadly animals on the planet.

2. Australian Box Jellyfish

The Australian Box Jellyfish is the most poisonous sea creature known to man. The first recorded case of death by a Box jellyfish was in 1884 and at least 5567 deaths have been caused by this ferocious beast! since according to records. Each tentacle of a box jellyfish can have up to 5000 stinging cells!

3. Elephant

Elephants are often seen as friendly, social animals, squirting water from their trunks and generally seem to be having a good time. They can be however be incredibly volatile creatures and are responsible for the death of around 500 people a year worldwide. They also never forget. Not that a good memory is particularly dangerous.

4. Poison Dart Frog

The poison dart frogs have been used by tribes to coat the tips of their arrows for hundreds of years. The frogs themselves are covered in a slimy neurotoxin that wards off predators. This neurotoxin is powerful enough to kill 10 humans, though you would hope that a group of 10 people wouldn’t continue to lick frogs after the first one croaked it!

5. Sharks

The great white shark is probably the most famous and certainly infamous monster on our list. Every year 50-70 shark attacks are reported according to the National Geographic: 5-15 of the attacks result in fatalities. This has risen in recent years due to the greater number of people competing to be in the same space as the sharks.

It is the sharks that come off worse in this fight though, between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year, mostly due to fishing.

6. Hippo

One of the most surprising deadly animals to make the list is the hippo. Normally found waddling around in mud on the pages of children’s books, hippos are responsible for 2900 deaths in Africa each year! A hippo can weigh up to 8000 pounds and travel at the nifty speed of 18 mph.

Next time you go to fetch your cat repeller to scare off the next door neighbour’s unruly feline, just be lucky you don’t have to fend off any of these, truly deadly animals!

Estelle Page is an interior designer and fond gardener. At home she blogs about all subjects to do with interior design, DIY and garden design. She currently writes for Pest Control Group about their new range of animal repellents and gardening products.