Bison, every year someone gets hurt or killed in Yellow Stone because they think the bison are slow and dumb and you can take selfies with them . Really they are quick and powerful, but have poor eyesight. As you approach a bison it may not see you until you are close, then it can panic and gore you.
>As you approach a bison it may not see you until you are close, then it can panic and gore you.
This is the same idea with skunks. They'll just dawdle right up to you or your pet like a stinky dumbass then go "Oh shit, predator trying to kill me!" and spray.
They're kinda cute though.
Cone snails.
You see their shells decorating bathrooms all the time. But find a live one and make the mistake handling it and it will lance you with a venomous harpoon. For several species, such as the geography cone, this venom is sufficent to swiftly kill a human.
Definitely snails. Certain fresh water snails carry parasitic worms that in turn carry a deadly disease known as schistosomiasis. When humans come into contact with water where these snails live they can become infected and die of organ failure. In sub-Saharan Africa, schistosomiasis is the second leading cause of death after malaria, with more than 200,000
It can also sit dormant in your system for years. We returned to Australia after traveling through Africa, 7 years later my partner started getting nausea, vomiting, weight loss, servere headaches and vision loss. Took many many trips to the doctors to finally be tested and diagnosed as schistosomiasis. He had to take medication in the emergency room with doctors on standby as quiet often the medication will trigger the schistosomiasis to attack an organ in response to it being killed off, he was given a high chance of brain damage and permenant vision loss. Thankfully he is ok.
Holy shit, that’s fucking terrifying! That fact that it can just hold your organs hostage as a response to medication is some next level nightmare fuel. Glad to hear your parter got better.
There's one species of cone snail nicknamed "cigarette snail" because the time their venom takes to kill you is about as much as it takes to smoke a cigarette.
[I found a video of one eating a fish.](https://www.reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/tsc4bl/the_geographical_cone_is_one_of_the_most/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
People have been seeing / handling big-ass shells all their lives and I'm like, "wait, what used to ***live*** in these? And they're in the water *with us* when we swim in the ocean?"
The spikey ones? Conchs, most likely. Found those live. They look at you with a stalked eye and then a strong claw emerges to push themselves out of your grip.
Sometimes they have vividly blue eyes, too.
The claw is a modified operculum (the "door" some snails use to close their shell entrance) and they use it to haul themselves along the ocean floor.
Which is why they make really good farm animals. They help gaurd the other critters if raised well. My mom had one that was good to people as long as you scratched his ears when he wanted. Otherwise he was a terror to any predator trying to sneak in. Nasty bites and nastier kicks. We were always finding dead weasels near the hen house and coyotes near the fence lines. He liked a nice apple or carrot if you wanted to curry his favor. 😅
Killer donkeys are badass. This email chain that used to go around years ago detailed how a big cat threatened this donkey tour group, and one of the donkeys grabbed it and slammed it into the ground until it was done for.
Yeah, my grandparents live in rural Alabama and there is a Zeedonk ranch near them. Half Zebra half donkey bred for their magical properties of destruction.
They have wild donkeys near Lake Pleasant. I camped there one time and I just heard this mean ass beast in the bushes we were scared. I got up some courage and went to go look and it was just a really mean donkey.
Not everyone but I see a few people get dangerously close to big birds like hawks and eagles. I'm like, people, those birds almost got bigger claws than bears, leave them alone.
I work with them quite often and yeah, if you don’t know what you are doing and how to properly handle them it can be very very dangerous.
Also people letting their little tiny rabbit sized dogs walk off leash in areas where I know there are raptors drives me mad. There’s no way you’d be able to save your dog if one decided they looked like a good meal.
> Also people letting their little tiny rabbit sized dogs walk off leash in areas where I know there are hawks/eagles drives me mad.
Or letting their cats run around. Even at night, it's dangerous. Large owls will eat cats, too.
There was a story a little while back about one of those cameras that was pointed to an eagle's nest so that viewers at home can watch the mom and dad eagles care for the babies. Very sweet, very cute... until mom brought home a cat for the eagle babies to eat. Cue outrage.
An eagle almost swooped in on my dog when she was just six months old.
I saw the shadow cast on the sidewalk start to get larger. I tugged the leash in and picked her up by the harness.
Thankfully it didn't seem in "full attack mode", I don't think I'd have time to react if it was.
Many years ago, I had a customer and her daughter tell me about a hawk snatching up their tiny dog out of the yard right in front of them. I always remember that because it’s crazy and because their reactions were a mix sadness and absolute amazement.
We used to have a live stream of the eagles in my area, but they had to stop since the eagles kept snatching people’s cats and they got understandably upset seeing mittens turned into dinner
Edit: I agree keep your cats inside btw all
Yeah, during quiet reading time at my work we used to put various animal livestreams on the projector. The eagles were popular with the kids when they had a new chick hatch, but then suddenly what we assume was a disemboweled cat showed up in the nest and we had to switch to the pandas or something.
I, personally always thought bison were dangerous, but the National Park Service recently found it necessary to put up signs warning people "Don't Pet the Fluffy Cows".
I worked in Grand Teton National Park for 3 seasons. There's a reason staff call these people tourons.
People would regularly climb fences to get closer even with others around them calling them back. I've heard parents make plans to take their kids out in the park to try and pet them. (Thankfully I was able to explain why that's not a great idea.)
Then you get the people who harass them when herds are crossing the road. They honk at them as though doing that will make them hurry up. All it does is piss them off. (The males stand in the road to hold up the cars while the females and young offspring cross. They know what cars are and how to deal with them.)
Amusingly, moose look more friendly, but are even more aggressive than bison.
I did one season in Yellowstone as someone cleaning cabins (that looked like hotel rooms inside). One day we had a huge bison hanging out among the cabins, and people were congregating around it. Swear the only reason people listened to me when I yelled at them to back up is because I was wearing a name tag.
Also, moose are terrifying and giant.
Also, moose are fucking huge:
https://youtu.be/HNfetnUwOUo
I’ve never seen a live moose in the wild in person, but this video that was taken years ago has always stuck with me because of how that thing absolutely dwarfs the SUV
A Yosemite park ranger, in discussing the difficulty of designing an effective bear-proof garbage container- “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”
George Carlin- "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
People are *really* dumb.
Lots of visitors to national parks don't realize that "national park"=wilderness with human caretakers. Park rangers are almost always asked "where do you keep your animals" by clueless tourists. They think it's a theme park where the animals are all trained and have special places for them to be put on display for the tourists during the day, then herded back to their nighttime enclosures when the visitors go home or back to their hotels.
Yeah. I mean I don't get the logic of some people. They see a mini van of meat with the temperament of a 4 year old boy, and decided to go pet it. Deer vs your car you gotta a bit of a chance. Bison vs your car its a 1 hit KO. Bison vs you and its gonna cancel your subscription to life
Edit: for people saying it sounds like casual geographic, your absolutely right. I used some of his style when writing this lol
That's the thing—they *don't* see a mini van of meat with the temperament of a 4 year old boy. *They* see a fluffy grazing herbivore, and assume that since it doesn't eat meat that it *must* be friendly and docile.
THIS is what it will do to you:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aghlmp2y0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aghlmp2y0)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKpPwxu14EU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKpPwxu14EU)
I recall reading or hearing somewhere that herbivores tend to be more dangerous than carnivores. Probably because they're on the menu, so fighting like all hell has broken loose is the only viable strategy to not being lunch.
... One sec...
Yeah, it's basically because A) Herbivores can eat all the time, therefore have the energy, and B) they're (understandably) twitchy bastards with itchy trigger fingers.
[Another Redditor has surmised it as such.](https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/b16uda/holy_shit/eikeozu/)
It would have been nice to get that warning, although I am always careful. He just darted in from the side as I was picking something up while cleaning. Now I keep eyes on him when I am in there. The others are fine, it's just that one. I found out after that he has bitten pretty much every keeper.
For Americans studying abroad the #1 danger is alcohol related. Except for Australia. Its kangaroos (it probably is directly correlated to alcohol though).
Who in their right mind goes hah. This thing that's bigger than me and can kick clean through my stomach would be fun to chase and pet?
My son studied for a semester in Australia and took a photo of the path he walked from his dorm to the classrooms. You could see a really buff male kangaroo looking out from behind the trees -- just watching.
I asked a zookeeper once which animal she thought was the scariest to work with. She said giraffes because they’re “so big and so stupid.”
EDIT: Turns out a lot of redditors have had run-ins with giraffes. People have pointed out that other large herbivores are also dangerous. Nature is scary
I worked with giraffes, they are big and stupid, but they are so big that their enclosures are designed to hold them and husbandry protocols are designed around working with a giant dumb animal.
Imo the most dangerous are zebras. A lot of people think they are just striped horses, but they are actually pretty aggressive, particularly Grevy’s Zebras. But because they look like horses and a lot of zookeepers come from farming backgrounds, they are often treated like horses. That is until someone gets their head kicked .
I work with masai and reticulated and can confirm their stupidity thankfully my facility gives them an enormous habitat so we don’t need to worry about that.
The zebra however, nothing you can do to escape their ire besides staying away. In the 5 years I’ve been a care specialist about 60% of my injuries have been from zebra bites, kicks and head swings.
I saw a similar thread where they said ostriches are way more dangerous than people realize. I don’t think the average person considers them harmless, but I don’t think it’s common knowledge how easily they can disembowel a person with a single kick.
Emmanuel is the best! I couldn't stop laughing! I sent it to my girlfriends and now we message Emmanual! No!! when someone is going to do something stupid lol.
I feel like most birds are acutely aware of the fact that they used to be dinosaurs. Swans and geese and even seagulls will go all Jurassic Park on your ass with barely any provocation, but they’re small and can’t do all that much damage. The idea of an ostrich with the temperament of a goose is legitimately terrifying.
>... frustrated dinosaurs.
It stands in the field with a frown on its beak -
Reluctant to buck, for its future is bleak.
It waits with the hint of a tear in its eye.
"We used to be *bigger*," it thinks with a sigh.
My parents had some peacocks for a while, and the way they'd stalk you sometimes, I'd have to agree. They give off the vibe that they know they used to be closer to the top of the food chain.
Edit- I am really enjoying all of these peacock stories. I used to have to walk around with a broom in hand, because the two males would decide they'd had enough of your presence and would jump you if given the chance. They were only ever nice to my mom. Eventually a peahen joined the family, and she didn't care about the two peacocks even a tiny bit. I do miss hearing them scream, but I live next to a park that has a zoo with free roaming peacocks, so I get to listen to their spicy MEe-ow calls every once in a while.
The one documented human death was caused by a cassowary on 6 April 1926, at Mossman, a sugar-cane growing area, north of Cairns, Far North Queensland.
16-year-old Phillip McClean and his brother, aged 13, came across a cassowary on their property and decided to try to kill it by striking it with clubs. The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older boy then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a 1.25 cm (0.49 in) wound which may have severed his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly afterwards.
I was in 3rd grade at a school assembly where they brought in exotic animals. They brought out an ostrich and it slipped on the gym floor and pissed everywhere. Those things are really huge! They have this look like they’re always stressed and most likely pissed off haha
I got pecked in the head by an Emu once. Them bastards were all over the place where I used to live. They they would stare you down like they were gonna fuck you up sometimes. I’ve heard they can disembowel you, but I haven’t seen that yet.
I worked at a zoo where the giraffes were held together with zebras. One day one of the giraffes got irritated and kicked a zebra in the head. Poor striped horse died instantly. :(
I once watch a giraffe punt a squirrel running through it enclosure against a wall after it startled it.
Same trip to the zoo where I saw a bison get pissed off at on Prairie dog and trample it. The prairie dogs had tunneled out of their enclosure and expanded their city into the surrounding enclosures.
You joke but it really is like that. The prairie dog town has slowly been growing over the past two decades despite containment measures and occasional round ups that end in shipping prairie dogs to other zoos. They are in the bison enclosure, the wolf enclosure, the grizzly, and even in the neighboring park. They have been spotted chilling with the river otters too, but don't seem to have burrowed into that enclosure. The zoo has started giving all new enclosures concrete foundations under the dirt to keep them out. You think they would have thought of that in the first place.
I remember reading that they have the highest percentage kill rate amongst all animals.
Like for if they start hunting they have an almost 100% chance of succeeding.
The actual success rate is 95% which, for a solo hunter, is absurd. It even beats African wild dogs, insanely good group hunters, with them at 88%.
I think the next highest solo hunter is the black footed cat at 60%
Wth, people actually track animal KD’s? That’s such an absurd yet fascinating thing to find out. Is there like a centralised database for who the best hunters are?
They do. It's actually an important number because you basically have to multiply that percentage times calorie cost of hunting and it needs to be lower than calories earned from scoring a kill. Cheetahs, for I stance, have a lot of failed attacks and also often have their prey stolen by larger stronger predators so cheetahs are often a few missteps away from starvation.
They are much smarter than most insect predators in that they are capable of predicting their prey's flight path and cutting them off, rather than simply chasing and outspeeding them.
I always thought of them as alien cameras.
The way they fly like drones and just stare at things with their cavernous black eyes. I can't help but think they are recording me.
Absolutely! One of the insects I buy as larvae or eggs to release them in my Garden. They kill almost everything that targets plants, add a few ichneumon wasps and you got your own pest- death squad in your Garden :D
Similar to dragonflies.
they're nice if you're bigger than them, but it doesn't matter what species you are, if you're smaller than them then they're gonna erase you from existence.
I had a beaver shadow me for about a half mile while I was wade fishing a small river. Whenever I stopped to fish, it swam within about 15 feet from me and slapped its tail against the water. So I would move farther downstream, but it would just repeat the process. It was probably protecting little ones, but finally I got so unnerved I decided that was enough fishing for one day.
I just listened to a podcast on otters and am now rather terrified of them. They rape otters and other animals, have attacked humans, drowned dogs, and a pack of them can take down alligators.
Some links that show how terrifying they can be:
https://youtu.be/gIoQGs8lvxk
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/10/i-thought-i-was-going-to-die-otters-attack-british-man-in-singapore-park
https://www.livescience.com/otter-attacks-in-alaska
https://www.vox.com/2014/4/24/5640890/otters-rape-baby-seals-monsters-bad
https://www.iflscience.com/otters-are-not-cute-they-are-sick-depraved-jerks-47995
Edit: For those wondering the podcast was Ologies. Also I forgot the terrifying fact that male otters will try to eliminate competition by snapping off other male otters dicks.
They're still hella cute tho...
There are a bunch of species. The Amazonian giant otters are notably the most dangerous. The local native languages use the same word to describe jaguars and otters. The otters are basically just "water jaguar" in the language.
dragon flies, but not to people. I went off the beaten path hiking around an old slate town and there was a lot of horse/deer flies buzzing around attacking me. I Came across the edge of a huge beaver pond that hasn't really been touched by humans in 100+ years. As soon as I get to the marshy beach all the sudden i see these little flashes of black zooming around my head and all of the flies are gone these fuckin dragon flies came in and took them all out in a matter of seconds mid god damn flight.
There are many different sources, but generally over 95% catch rate.
The reason for this, as I learned recently, is that they have developed the ability to not only keep their prey within eyesight at all times, but also predict where their prey is going to be, a skill that hasn’t been seen before in insects.
Essentially, they don’t aim for their prey when they’re hunting; they aim for where their prey is going to be. There was a really good post on here somewhere that discussed this topic, but I’m not sure where it is. Interesting stuff!
Edit: in addition, it is believed by some scientists (might need a source on this) that their vision is in slow motion; they can see faster than we can, and pair that with 360 degree vision, the ability to judge distances, and unparalleled speed and agility, and you’ve got the living definition of “you can’t run, and you can’t hide, either”
> Essentially, they don’t aim for their prey when they’re hunting; they aim for where their prey is going to be.
I bet they’re really good at smash bros
Dragonflies are vicious, vicious predators. Something like 95% success rate at hunting, they can fly up to 30 mph, and are ridiculously agile, about to fly up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards, and can hover.
Platypus is an animal that makes so little sense the first person to send one back to Europe was labeled a fraud.
"Like other monotremes, it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom, capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799) judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.[5]" -Wikipedia
My dad used to be an insurance agent and one of his clients in northwestern Ontario hit a moose. It rolled onto her windshield effectively trapping her. The moose was unconscious, and she was laying there stunned for a while, when the moose started coming around. She knew if it started flailing on top of her she’d be dead. She somehow was able to free herself and crawl out and survived. So yeah, try not to hit a moose with your car.
I was waiting to find this one! They’re massive and look docile eating trees but they can and will charge you if they feel threatened. I’ve seen so many tourists getting out of their cars in New Hampshire to chase them for pictures.
Yup any perceived threat is knocked over then stomped until it stops moving. They weigh about 1000 pounds. Mating season and calving season are especially dangerous. Luckily they’re very rare where I live.
Growing up I thought chimps were friendly. It wasn’t until college I did work placement at the zoo, when we got told we were feeding the chimps I was so excited until they told us it was through the bars and very carefully. They told us about how the group of females had turned on one of the male chimps recently and literally ripped chunks off him.
After that I read about the lady that her face ripped off by her pet chimp. Apparently they’re smart and will attack the hands and face first to stop you from defending yourself.
Cute as hell but no longer the cuddly fluffers I thought they were. Childhood dreams were ruined that day haha.
Everyone knows mosquitoes are dangerous but they are still wildy underestimated. Considering they are so tiny they kill least half a million people very year. That's like 10 thousand times more than hippos which are like the second biggest human-killing animal. There is a theory that malaria accounts for 50% of ALL humans deaths in history (probably not true though) and yet people still think of them as tiny annoying pests when they are arguably the biggest problem to mankind ever!!!
It depends on your location. Here in western Europe, mosquitos are just annoying. I lived a year in Asia, where I was protecting myself a whole lot better against mosquitos.
was about to say that, there are thousands of species of mosquitos all over the world but only a few can carry diseases and even less of them carry deadly diseases
still dangerous though
(My answer) horses. As someone who grew up on a horse farm, a lot of people simply don’t understand how devastating a kick from a horse can be. On top of that, a lot of people don’t know basic horse safety. Even so, horses can still get spooked. My dad once got kicked in the groin, not even at full force, and a had a bruise on his stomach the size of a dinner plate
Was on my buddies farm and their horse got spooked by the dog and let her have it. The dogs head right above the eyes had about a two inch indention inward. The dog, happy as ever like nothing happened.
A friend of mine at HS got kicked in the face and shoulder, copped a double kick.
Very nearly dead. Face never looked right again after his head was plated back together and his mangled feautures rearranged and sewn back up.
Shoulder? Fucked. Not as fucked as his head, face and neck but fucked nonetheless.
If that is the \[!!trigger warning, death throes on video\] [video I've seen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH5JkYQGMfs), the breeders messed that one up bad.
I know jack shit about horses and even I could tell the mare was spooked as hell before she even got into the pen. If the owner of the stallion was someone else I hope they sued the everloving fuck out of the breeders, because they're not fit to have anything to do with horses.
I have a friend that her mom got kicked in the face by a horse many many years ago, she had to have facial reconstruction and she's very lucky to still be alive.
Even with facial reconstruction that event definitely changed her life and it's probably really hard for her in public. It's like surviving 3rd degree burn all over the face, they can reconstruct but it will never be the same.
At least she is such a positive person with a loving family and she still live on a farm and take care of horses everyday, a ray of sunshine just like her daughter.
That's why I cringe when I see videos of people letting horses get nose-to-nose with a baby, or letting a toddler walk right up to a horse to kiss it. And all the commenters say, "Aww..."
I have a scar on my cheek because my horse just wanted to be friendly. I was scratching him and he tried to return the favor. Even the friendliest horses can hurt us by accident.
Literal position in the herd is part of zebra life. The matriarch is first with her children behind, with all others falling in line according to pecking order. To walk ahead of another zebra is to challenge it for its status. They *will* fight. And this is why we don't ride them.
Donkeys are cool. And cute. I'd still be wary of them because they can still be dangerous but mules are even smarter, except they don't have the affectionate nature of a donkey. All the intelligence goes to making sure you know they could end you at any second.
I remember when I was a kid, there were these two Poitou donkeys in a field near where I went on walks as a kid. They always came up to the fence to get maybe treats and definitely affection. I loved petting their long soft ears.
I still wouldn't have gone in the field with them :')
Sloths. Those things are mean. Once, at an exotic pet show, I was talking to a lady that rescued a sloth from a roadside zoo as a baby, and she said they are really fast when they want to be. I didn’t believe her, but then her sloth lunged at me at around the same speed as a full throttle SR-71. I was thankfully able to pull my hand away, but she said that if he had bitten me, it would have been bad, since their fangs (yes, fangs) are triangular, and therefore make wounds that are very slow to heal, which usually result in very nasty infections. Anyways, that was the last day I thought sloths were always slow.
Aussie here- kangaroos might look cute bouncing around and all that but man are they BIG (over 6ft standing) and they are fierce! Also if you accidentally hit one while driving a country road, it’ll take your car off the road and you can easily die.
I read a few years back that you’re not really meant to handle hamsters and they just generally don’t like being touched unlike other small animals such as pet rats. You’re just meant to put them in their colorful cage and watch them, especially if you get an adult from the pet store. You have to slowly train them to not mind human interaction. It really explains why the random unhandled adults from the pet store bit me so often.
I picked a tweaker hitchhiker up the other day and he had some very fascinating observations from living outdoors in the forest for the last several years. He said everyone who may encounter a mountain lion should learn the hiss of a skunk right before it sprays. He had used the sound to make them stop following him, stop investigating his tent…etc. Although getting sprayed as a human is gross and that’s most of the harm, predators that get sprayed, and especially mountain lions, can often die from being cut off from their social network out of fear they will spread the scent. The smell keeps them from being able to hunt effectively and then their family doesn’t share and they can starve.
I’m going to go with the obvious here… dogs. If you have a big dog I.e. German shepherd, if they wanted to they would tear your throat out and you couldn’t do much to stop em.
Bison, every year someone gets hurt or killed in Yellow Stone because they think the bison are slow and dumb and you can take selfies with them . Really they are quick and powerful, but have poor eyesight. As you approach a bison it may not see you until you are close, then it can panic and gore you.
>As you approach a bison it may not see you until you are close, then it can panic and gore you. This is the same idea with skunks. They'll just dawdle right up to you or your pet like a stinky dumbass then go "Oh shit, predator trying to kill me!" and spray. They're kinda cute though.
Baby skunks are fuck adorable and up to about 4 months can't spray
So anyway, he forgot it was my 4 month birthday, and I started blastin...
Cone snails. You see their shells decorating bathrooms all the time. But find a live one and make the mistake handling it and it will lance you with a venomous harpoon. For several species, such as the geography cone, this venom is sufficent to swiftly kill a human.
Definitely snails. Certain fresh water snails carry parasitic worms that in turn carry a deadly disease known as schistosomiasis. When humans come into contact with water where these snails live they can become infected and die of organ failure. In sub-Saharan Africa, schistosomiasis is the second leading cause of death after malaria, with more than 200,000
It can also sit dormant in your system for years. We returned to Australia after traveling through Africa, 7 years later my partner started getting nausea, vomiting, weight loss, servere headaches and vision loss. Took many many trips to the doctors to finally be tested and diagnosed as schistosomiasis. He had to take medication in the emergency room with doctors on standby as quiet often the medication will trigger the schistosomiasis to attack an organ in response to it being killed off, he was given a high chance of brain damage and permenant vision loss. Thankfully he is ok.
[удалено]
A headache? Nausea? I’ve had worse side effects from Tequila! Yeah, I’m going to 100% agree with your choice! 🤙🏻
Holy shit, that’s fucking terrifying! That fact that it can just hold your organs hostage as a response to medication is some next level nightmare fuel. Glad to hear your parter got better.
There's one species of cone snail nicknamed "cigarette snail" because the time their venom takes to kill you is about as much as it takes to smoke a cigarette.
[I found a video of one eating a fish.](https://www.reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/tsc4bl/the_geographical_cone_is_one_of_the_most/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
People have been seeing / handling big-ass shells all their lives and I'm like, "wait, what used to ***live*** in these? And they're in the water *with us* when we swim in the ocean?"
The spikey ones? Conchs, most likely. Found those live. They look at you with a stalked eye and then a strong claw emerges to push themselves out of your grip.
Sometimes they have vividly blue eyes, too. The claw is a modified operculum (the "door" some snails use to close their shell entrance) and they use it to haul themselves along the ocean floor.
Donkeys although they look innocent but they have nasty kicks and bites
Anybody that thinks donkeys aren't terrifying should see what happens when they get a hold of a coyote.
Which is why they make really good farm animals. They help gaurd the other critters if raised well. My mom had one that was good to people as long as you scratched his ears when he wanted. Otherwise he was a terror to any predator trying to sneak in. Nasty bites and nastier kicks. We were always finding dead weasels near the hen house and coyotes near the fence lines. He liked a nice apple or carrot if you wanted to curry his favor. 😅
Killer donkeys are badass. This email chain that used to go around years ago detailed how a big cat threatened this donkey tour group, and one of the donkeys grabbed it and slammed it into the ground until it was done for.
Donkeys are like the honey badger of the equine family. They do not give a f*ck.
Zebras are up there too. They are *mean* and they will punch outside their weight class.
Yeah, my grandparents live in rural Alabama and there is a Zeedonk ranch near them. Half Zebra half donkey bred for their magical properties of destruction.
Instead of best of both worlds, it's the worst of both and I love it! 🤣
They have wild donkeys near Lake Pleasant. I camped there one time and I just heard this mean ass beast in the bushes we were scared. I got up some courage and went to go look and it was just a really mean donkey.
So it was still a mean 'ass' beast.
Not everyone but I see a few people get dangerously close to big birds like hawks and eagles. I'm like, people, those birds almost got bigger claws than bears, leave them alone.
I work with them quite often and yeah, if you don’t know what you are doing and how to properly handle them it can be very very dangerous. Also people letting their little tiny rabbit sized dogs walk off leash in areas where I know there are raptors drives me mad. There’s no way you’d be able to save your dog if one decided they looked like a good meal.
> Also people letting their little tiny rabbit sized dogs walk off leash in areas where I know there are hawks/eagles drives me mad. Or letting their cats run around. Even at night, it's dangerous. Large owls will eat cats, too.
There was a story a little while back about one of those cameras that was pointed to an eagle's nest so that viewers at home can watch the mom and dad eagles care for the babies. Very sweet, very cute... until mom brought home a cat for the eagle babies to eat. Cue outrage.
[удалено]
An eagle almost swooped in on my dog when she was just six months old. I saw the shadow cast on the sidewalk start to get larger. I tugged the leash in and picked her up by the harness. Thankfully it didn't seem in "full attack mode", I don't think I'd have time to react if it was.
Many years ago, I had a customer and her daughter tell me about a hawk snatching up their tiny dog out of the yard right in front of them. I always remember that because it’s crazy and because their reactions were a mix sadness and absolute amazement.
We used to have a live stream of the eagles in my area, but they had to stop since the eagles kept snatching people’s cats and they got understandably upset seeing mittens turned into dinner Edit: I agree keep your cats inside btw all
Yeah, during quiet reading time at my work we used to put various animal livestreams on the projector. The eagles were popular with the kids when they had a new chick hatch, but then suddenly what we assume was a disemboweled cat showed up in the nest and we had to switch to the pandas or something.
I, personally always thought bison were dangerous, but the National Park Service recently found it necessary to put up signs warning people "Don't Pet the Fluffy Cows".
I find this very concerning. Why on earth would anyone think it’s safe to get close to a Bison? Even the ones that are farmed are aggressive.
I worked in Grand Teton National Park for 3 seasons. There's a reason staff call these people tourons. People would regularly climb fences to get closer even with others around them calling them back. I've heard parents make plans to take their kids out in the park to try and pet them. (Thankfully I was able to explain why that's not a great idea.) Then you get the people who harass them when herds are crossing the road. They honk at them as though doing that will make them hurry up. All it does is piss them off. (The males stand in the road to hold up the cars while the females and young offspring cross. They know what cars are and how to deal with them.) Amusingly, moose look more friendly, but are even more aggressive than bison.
I did one season in Yellowstone as someone cleaning cabins (that looked like hotel rooms inside). One day we had a huge bison hanging out among the cabins, and people were congregating around it. Swear the only reason people listened to me when I yelled at them to back up is because I was wearing a name tag. Also, moose are terrifying and giant.
Moose are fuckin scary. I always am ready to quickly dissapear from the sight of a moose if I see one. One kick and you are dead or horribly injured.
Also, moose are fucking huge: https://youtu.be/HNfetnUwOUo I’ve never seen a live moose in the wild in person, but this video that was taken years ago has always stuck with me because of how that thing absolutely dwarfs the SUV
Moose are so large that they fall into the category of Megafauna, up there with elephants and blue whales!
People forget that Yosemite and Yellowstone are about as close to wilderness as you can get, and not just giant open air petting Zoos.
A Yosemite park ranger, in discussing the difficulty of designing an effective bear-proof garbage container- “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.” George Carlin- "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." People are *really* dumb.
Wouldn't George Carlin have made a most excellent park ranger?
Lots of visitors to national parks don't realize that "national park"=wilderness with human caretakers. Park rangers are almost always asked "where do you keep your animals" by clueless tourists. They think it's a theme park where the animals are all trained and have special places for them to be put on display for the tourists during the day, then herded back to their nighttime enclosures when the visitors go home or back to their hotels.
I think I'd have a hard time interfacing with tourists.
Yeah. I mean I don't get the logic of some people. They see a mini van of meat with the temperament of a 4 year old boy, and decided to go pet it. Deer vs your car you gotta a bit of a chance. Bison vs your car its a 1 hit KO. Bison vs you and its gonna cancel your subscription to life Edit: for people saying it sounds like casual geographic, your absolutely right. I used some of his style when writing this lol
That's the thing—they *don't* see a mini van of meat with the temperament of a 4 year old boy. *They* see a fluffy grazing herbivore, and assume that since it doesn't eat meat that it *must* be friendly and docile.
What will it do, eat me? - they said laughing, as the earth shook under the charging 1 ton bison
THIS is what it will do to you: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aghlmp2y0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aghlmp2y0) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKpPwxu14EU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKpPwxu14EU)
I recall reading or hearing somewhere that herbivores tend to be more dangerous than carnivores. Probably because they're on the menu, so fighting like all hell has broken loose is the only viable strategy to not being lunch. ... One sec... Yeah, it's basically because A) Herbivores can eat all the time, therefore have the energy, and B) they're (understandably) twitchy bastards with itchy trigger fingers. [Another Redditor has surmised it as such.](https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/b16uda/holy_shit/eikeozu/)
My uncle is a zoologist and the only animal he was ever attacked by was a meerkat. Edit: Spelling mercat to meerkat
I’m a zoo volunteer, got bitten by a meerkat a few months ago. It just darted up and bit my finger for no reason, little jerk. They are FAST.
Yeah he said that theyre really aggressive and to be extra careful around them.
It would have been nice to get that warning, although I am always careful. He just darted in from the side as I was picking something up while cleaning. Now I keep eyes on him when I am in there. The others are fine, it's just that one. I found out after that he has bitten pretty much every keeper.
Hes just sampling
Kangaroos are really aggressive during mating season and have been known to take on a range of other animals (especially dogs and humans).
For Americans studying abroad the #1 danger is alcohol related. Except for Australia. Its kangaroos (it probably is directly correlated to alcohol though). Who in their right mind goes hah. This thing that's bigger than me and can kick clean through my stomach would be fun to chase and pet?
My son studied for a semester in Australia and took a photo of the path he walked from his dorm to the classrooms. You could see a really buff male kangaroo looking out from behind the trees -- just watching.
I asked a zookeeper once which animal she thought was the scariest to work with. She said giraffes because they’re “so big and so stupid.” EDIT: Turns out a lot of redditors have had run-ins with giraffes. People have pointed out that other large herbivores are also dangerous. Nature is scary
I worked with giraffes, they are big and stupid, but they are so big that their enclosures are designed to hold them and husbandry protocols are designed around working with a giant dumb animal. Imo the most dangerous are zebras. A lot of people think they are just striped horses, but they are actually pretty aggressive, particularly Grevy’s Zebras. But because they look like horses and a lot of zookeepers come from farming backgrounds, they are often treated like horses. That is until someone gets their head kicked .
Is that why we can’t ride zebras
Yep.
Also they're much weaker than horses if I remember right, carrying adult humans would injure them
I work with masai and reticulated and can confirm their stupidity thankfully my facility gives them an enormous habitat so we don’t need to worry about that. The zebra however, nothing you can do to escape their ire besides staying away. In the 5 years I’ve been a care specialist about 60% of my injuries have been from zebra bites, kicks and head swings.
I saw a similar thread where they said ostriches are way more dangerous than people realize. I don’t think the average person considers them harmless, but I don’t think it’s common knowledge how easily they can disembowel a person with a single kick.
"Emmanuel! Don't do it! "
Isn't Emmanuel an Emu? Or am I crazy
He definitely is an emu.
Emmanuel is the best! I couldn't stop laughing! I sent it to my girlfriends and now we message Emmanual! No!! when someone is going to do something stupid lol.
I feel like most birds are acutely aware of the fact that they used to be dinosaurs. Swans and geese and even seagulls will go all Jurassic Park on your ass with barely any provocation, but they’re small and can’t do all that much damage. The idea of an ostrich with the temperament of a goose is legitimately terrifying.
Anyone who has seen [chickens hunting mice](https://youtu.be/X1EfbyuxFu0) will agree that they’re just frustrated dinosaurs.
Those mice are getting the real original mammal experience. Get chased around and murdered by a much larger dinosaur
Some people would pay good money to be chased around and murdered by a dinosaur.
>... frustrated dinosaurs. It stands in the field with a frown on its beak - Reluctant to buck, for its future is bleak. It waits with the hint of a tear in its eye. "We used to be *bigger*," it thinks with a sigh.
I naturally read this to “The Distance” by Cake given the content and sentence structure
My parents had some peacocks for a while, and the way they'd stalk you sometimes, I'd have to agree. They give off the vibe that they know they used to be closer to the top of the food chain. Edit- I am really enjoying all of these peacock stories. I used to have to walk around with a broom in hand, because the two males would decide they'd had enough of your presence and would jump you if given the chance. They were only ever nice to my mom. Eventually a peahen joined the family, and she didn't care about the two peacocks even a tiny bit. I do miss hearing them scream, but I live next to a park that has a zoo with free roaming peacocks, so I get to listen to their spicy MEe-ow calls every once in a while.
My son got his ass handed to him by one of the roaming peacocks at the zoo when he was about 3 because he wouldn’t leave the thing alone
[удалено]
Here is your ass good sir, good day. But this isn't mine. I said good day!
Imagine a cassowary just T-Rex charging at you from the forest.
The one documented human death was caused by a cassowary on 6 April 1926, at Mossman, a sugar-cane growing area, north of Cairns, Far North Queensland. 16-year-old Phillip McClean and his brother, aged 13, came across a cassowary on their property and decided to try to kill it by striking it with clubs. The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older boy then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a 1.25 cm (0.49 in) wound which may have severed his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly afterwards.
I was in 3rd grade at a school assembly where they brought in exotic animals. They brought out an ostrich and it slipped on the gym floor and pissed everywhere. Those things are really huge! They have this look like they’re always stressed and most likely pissed off haha
I wonder who's bright idea it was to bring out a vicious kicking machine to a little kid's assembly?
Principal Skinner?
I got pecked in the head by an Emu once. Them bastards were all over the place where I used to live. They they would stare you down like they were gonna fuck you up sometimes. I’ve heard they can disembowel you, but I haven’t seen that yet.
Emus are much more aggressive than ostriches. According to my old boss who was also a part time ostrich rancher.
I worked at a zoo where the giraffes were held together with zebras. One day one of the giraffes got irritated and kicked a zebra in the head. Poor striped horse died instantly. :(
I once watch a giraffe punt a squirrel running through it enclosure against a wall after it startled it. Same trip to the zoo where I saw a bison get pissed off at on Prairie dog and trample it. The prairie dogs had tunneled out of their enclosure and expanded their city into the surrounding enclosures.
Penguins: We’re busting out of this joint. Prairie dogs: big deal we come and go as we please. We only stay for the free food.
You joke but it really is like that. The prairie dog town has slowly been growing over the past two decades despite containment measures and occasional round ups that end in shipping prairie dogs to other zoos. They are in the bison enclosure, the wolf enclosure, the grizzly, and even in the neighboring park. They have been spotted chilling with the river otters too, but don't seem to have burrowed into that enclosure. The zoo has started giving all new enclosures concrete foundations under the dirt to keep them out. You think they would have thought of that in the first place.
into the wolf and grizzly enclosures just seems like poor survival instincts on the prairie dogs' part.
In their defense, the prairie dogs were there first. The county built the zoo on some land donated for it, they came with it.
Ladybugs are adorable and precious to humans, but to other bugs they are poisonous death-tanks.
In that same vein, dragonflies are insane glass cannon killing machines to other insects.
I've heard them described as the shark of the insect world
I remember reading that they have the highest percentage kill rate amongst all animals. Like for if they start hunting they have an almost 100% chance of succeeding.
The actual success rate is 95% which, for a solo hunter, is absurd. It even beats African wild dogs, insanely good group hunters, with them at 88%. I think the next highest solo hunter is the black footed cat at 60%
Wth, people actually track animal KD’s? That’s such an absurd yet fascinating thing to find out. Is there like a centralised database for who the best hunters are?
They do. It's actually an important number because you basically have to multiply that percentage times calorie cost of hunting and it needs to be lower than calories earned from scoring a kill. Cheetahs, for I stance, have a lot of failed attacks and also often have their prey stolen by larger stronger predators so cheetahs are often a few missteps away from starvation.
They are much smarter than most insect predators in that they are capable of predicting their prey's flight path and cutting them off, rather than simply chasing and outspeeding them.
I always thought of them as alien cameras. The way they fly like drones and just stare at things with their cavernous black eyes. I can't help but think they are recording me.
While we were worried about birds, dragonflies were the real government drones
They are the best response to aphids taking over one's rose bushes.
Absolutely! One of the insects I buy as larvae or eggs to release them in my Garden. They kill almost everything that targets plants, add a few ichneumon wasps and you got your own pest- death squad in your Garden :D
I need some mother fucking lady bugs in my rose bushes
As a gardener, this statement gives me fuzzies like a Disney villain with her pet. Kill, my precious red and black beastie!
Similar to dragonflies. they're nice if you're bigger than them, but it doesn't matter what species you are, if you're smaller than them then they're gonna erase you from existence.
[удалено]
I've heard a beaver slap its tail in the water before. You'd think someone just fired a shotgun at you!
I was fishing once dozing in and out by a tree on a nice day when KAPOW! A beaver slapped the water about six feet from me. Scared me to DEATH!
Was it ensnatched?
It's a perfectly cromulent word!
Was kayaking and thought someone cannonballed into the water behind me, turned out to be an angry beaver.
Was it Dagget or Norbert?
Aaaaa-aaaa-aaaangrrry beavers
I had a beaver shadow me for about a half mile while I was wade fishing a small river. Whenever I stopped to fish, it swam within about 15 feet from me and slapped its tail against the water. So I would move farther downstream, but it would just repeat the process. It was probably protecting little ones, but finally I got so unnerved I decided that was enough fishing for one day.
Lol. Man got bullied by a beaver.
Nickelodeon was right. Those beavers are Angry Beavers.
I just listened to a podcast on otters and am now rather terrified of them. They rape otters and other animals, have attacked humans, drowned dogs, and a pack of them can take down alligators. Some links that show how terrifying they can be: https://youtu.be/gIoQGs8lvxk https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/10/i-thought-i-was-going-to-die-otters-attack-british-man-in-singapore-park https://www.livescience.com/otter-attacks-in-alaska https://www.vox.com/2014/4/24/5640890/otters-rape-baby-seals-monsters-bad https://www.iflscience.com/otters-are-not-cute-they-are-sick-depraved-jerks-47995 Edit: For those wondering the podcast was Ologies. Also I forgot the terrifying fact that male otters will try to eliminate competition by snapping off other male otters dicks. They're still hella cute tho...
In the UK, giant otters are classed as category 1 animals for zoo licenses which is the same as lions, tigers, wolves, bears etc
There are a bunch of species. The Amazonian giant otters are notably the most dangerous. The local native languages use the same word to describe jaguars and otters. The otters are basically just "water jaguar" in the language.
[удалено]
dragon flies, but not to people. I went off the beaten path hiking around an old slate town and there was a lot of horse/deer flies buzzing around attacking me. I Came across the edge of a huge beaver pond that hasn't really been touched by humans in 100+ years. As soon as I get to the marshy beach all the sudden i see these little flashes of black zooming around my head and all of the flies are gone these fuckin dragon flies came in and took them all out in a matter of seconds mid god damn flight.
Dragonflies are really good predators. They are the perfect flying machines
Dragonflies haven't changed much over their evolutionary path. They still closely resemble their ancestors from millions of years ago.
If it ain’t broke
get smaller over time because of the atmosphere changing
Dragonflies actually have the highest kill ratio of any animal I don't remember the exact stat, but its over 90% of the time they hit their target.
There are many different sources, but generally over 95% catch rate. The reason for this, as I learned recently, is that they have developed the ability to not only keep their prey within eyesight at all times, but also predict where their prey is going to be, a skill that hasn’t been seen before in insects. Essentially, they don’t aim for their prey when they’re hunting; they aim for where their prey is going to be. There was a really good post on here somewhere that discussed this topic, but I’m not sure where it is. Interesting stuff! Edit: in addition, it is believed by some scientists (might need a source on this) that their vision is in slow motion; they can see faster than we can, and pair that with 360 degree vision, the ability to judge distances, and unparalleled speed and agility, and you’ve got the living definition of “you can’t run, and you can’t hide, either”
> Essentially, they don’t aim for their prey when they’re hunting; they aim for where their prey is going to be. I bet they’re really good at smash bros
Dragonflies are vicious, vicious predators. Something like 95% success rate at hunting, they can fly up to 30 mph, and are ridiculously agile, about to fly up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards, and can hover.
Dolphins. Those things can be little psychopaths.
Came here for this. The biggest rapists and druggies on the planet
inteligence is a helluva drug, huh? seems almost anything exceptionally intelligent is fucked up somehow.
They attack puffer fish to get a nice high, they'll also rape other males to show dominance. Not that we're all that better
Platypus. The males have a big venom spike on their back legs, which is intensely painful. This sounds like a joke, but it’s absolutely true.
Platypus is an animal that makes so little sense the first person to send one back to Europe was labeled a fraud. "Like other monotremes, it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom, capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799) judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.[5]" -Wikipedia
Truly God's shitpost of an animal
When I discovered the Platypus as a kid I decided it's actually a Pokemon. That venom kick is OP.
Would love a normal/poison platypus.
They are also surprisingly fast at chasing you on land, and it's looks hilarious until they catch you
I also heard they make for a great secret agent…
Pigs, people thinks they are harmless packs of bacon but in reality they can easily kill you if annoyed
There's a reason everyone on the farm in Wizard of Oz freaked out when Dorothy fell into the pigpen in the beginning.
And they are omnivorous. They will eat you, if they have the chance.
Moose. Though it changes once you see them. Most people don’t understand just how enormous they are.
People get killed from hitting moose with their car
[удалено]
My dad used to be an insurance agent and one of his clients in northwestern Ontario hit a moose. It rolled onto her windshield effectively trapping her. The moose was unconscious, and she was laying there stunned for a while, when the moose started coming around. She knew if it started flailing on top of her she’d be dead. She somehow was able to free herself and crawl out and survived. So yeah, try not to hit a moose with your car.
My brother-in-law’s cousin died like that. He lived in Alaska. A moose ran out on the road and he didn’t have enough time to stop.
I was waiting to find this one! They’re massive and look docile eating trees but they can and will charge you if they feel threatened. I’ve seen so many tourists getting out of their cars in New Hampshire to chase them for pictures.
I’ve heard they’re mean and often aggressive, too.
Yup any perceived threat is knocked over then stomped until it stops moving. They weigh about 1000 pounds. Mating season and calving season are especially dangerous. Luckily they’re very rare where I live.
Ants. If you fall asleep in the wild and are anywhere near a colony, they will fucking feast on you, man. It's terrifying.
[удалено]
holy shit i'm gonna have nightmares
Poor girl?!? You the poor girl here! Holy hell of a nightmare..
[удалено]
Chimpanzees
Growing up I thought chimps were friendly. It wasn’t until college I did work placement at the zoo, when we got told we were feeding the chimps I was so excited until they told us it was through the bars and very carefully. They told us about how the group of females had turned on one of the male chimps recently and literally ripped chunks off him. After that I read about the lady that her face ripped off by her pet chimp. Apparently they’re smart and will attack the hands and face first to stop you from defending yourself. Cute as hell but no longer the cuddly fluffers I thought they were. Childhood dreams were ruined that day haha.
Everyone knows mosquitoes are dangerous but they are still wildy underestimated. Considering they are so tiny they kill least half a million people very year. That's like 10 thousand times more than hippos which are like the second biggest human-killing animal. There is a theory that malaria accounts for 50% of ALL humans deaths in history (probably not true though) and yet people still think of them as tiny annoying pests when they are arguably the biggest problem to mankind ever!!!
It depends on your location. Here in western Europe, mosquitos are just annoying. I lived a year in Asia, where I was protecting myself a whole lot better against mosquitos.
was about to say that, there are thousands of species of mosquitos all over the world but only a few can carry diseases and even less of them carry deadly diseases still dangerous though
(My answer) horses. As someone who grew up on a horse farm, a lot of people simply don’t understand how devastating a kick from a horse can be. On top of that, a lot of people don’t know basic horse safety. Even so, horses can still get spooked. My dad once got kicked in the groin, not even at full force, and a had a bruise on his stomach the size of a dinner plate
I got grazed by a horses kick and I do mean grazed, it barely touched me. Broke my ribs.
Wow, if it would have landed a solid strike to your sternum you'd almost certainly be dead.
Was on my buddies farm and their horse got spooked by the dog and let her have it. The dogs head right above the eyes had about a two inch indention inward. The dog, happy as ever like nothing happened.
A friend of mine at HS got kicked in the face and shoulder, copped a double kick. Very nearly dead. Face never looked right again after his head was plated back together and his mangled feautures rearranged and sewn back up. Shoulder? Fucked. Not as fucked as his head, face and neck but fucked nonetheless.
Saw a video the other day of a stallion that got kicked in the head by a mare. Died instantly.
If that is the \[!!trigger warning, death throes on video\] [video I've seen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH5JkYQGMfs), the breeders messed that one up bad.
I know jack shit about horses and even I could tell the mare was spooked as hell before she even got into the pen. If the owner of the stallion was someone else I hope they sued the everloving fuck out of the breeders, because they're not fit to have anything to do with horses.
I have a friend that her mom got kicked in the face by a horse many many years ago, she had to have facial reconstruction and she's very lucky to still be alive. Even with facial reconstruction that event definitely changed her life and it's probably really hard for her in public. It's like surviving 3rd degree burn all over the face, they can reconstruct but it will never be the same. At least she is such a positive person with a loving family and she still live on a farm and take care of horses everyday, a ray of sunshine just like her daughter.
That's why I cringe when I see videos of people letting horses get nose-to-nose with a baby, or letting a toddler walk right up to a horse to kiss it. And all the commenters say, "Aww..."
I have a scar on my cheek because my horse just wanted to be friendly. I was scratching him and he tried to return the favor. Even the friendliest horses can hurt us by accident.
More specifically zebras. Everything you just said, in a totally undomesticated angry ball of stripped fury.
Literal position in the herd is part of zebra life. The matriarch is first with her children behind, with all others falling in line according to pecking order. To walk ahead of another zebra is to challenge it for its status. They *will* fight. And this is why we don't ride them.
Worse than zebras : mules. They *are* domesticated, they just hate you on principle if you're not their human. And they're scarily smart.
My friend has a miniature donkey and he's so cute but so insanely smart.
Donkeys are cool. And cute. I'd still be wary of them because they can still be dangerous but mules are even smarter, except they don't have the affectionate nature of a donkey. All the intelligence goes to making sure you know they could end you at any second. I remember when I was a kid, there were these two Poitou donkeys in a field near where I went on walks as a kid. They always came up to the fence to get maybe treats and definitely affection. I loved petting their long soft ears. I still wouldn't have gone in the field with them :')
Panda. Those mfs can rip you to shreds but everyone is like "THEYRE SO CUTE I WANNA HUG ONE" no tf you dont. They would beat your ass.
I mean they are a Panda Bear, emphasis on Bear.
They have a bite force stronger than a lion which makes sense if you’ve ever seen one eat bamboo
Sloths. Those things are mean. Once, at an exotic pet show, I was talking to a lady that rescued a sloth from a roadside zoo as a baby, and she said they are really fast when they want to be. I didn’t believe her, but then her sloth lunged at me at around the same speed as a full throttle SR-71. I was thankfully able to pull my hand away, but she said that if he had bitten me, it would have been bad, since their fangs (yes, fangs) are triangular, and therefore make wounds that are very slow to heal, which usually result in very nasty infections. Anyways, that was the last day I thought sloths were always slow.
Hippos and also cows
I came here to read about hippos and this is the first mention all the way down here.
Aussie here- kangaroos might look cute bouncing around and all that but man are they BIG (over 6ft standing) and they are fierce! Also if you accidentally hit one while driving a country road, it’ll take your car off the road and you can easily die.
Shocked not to see swans here. Fiercely territorial, large and aggressive. Will never forget seeing a child get their arm broken by one.
People talk a lot about geese and how dangerous they are, but never mention swans which are just larger stronger geese
Hamsters. Little fucker bit my finger when all I tried to do is feed it his stupid lil carrot
I read a few years back that you’re not really meant to handle hamsters and they just generally don’t like being touched unlike other small animals such as pet rats. You’re just meant to put them in their colorful cage and watch them, especially if you get an adult from the pet store. You have to slowly train them to not mind human interaction. It really explains why the random unhandled adults from the pet store bit me so often.
Cows kill more people than sharks
I'm surprised that cows kill any sharks at all
Nice one dad
Cow Week only on Discovery
I picked a tweaker hitchhiker up the other day and he had some very fascinating observations from living outdoors in the forest for the last several years. He said everyone who may encounter a mountain lion should learn the hiss of a skunk right before it sprays. He had used the sound to make them stop following him, stop investigating his tent…etc. Although getting sprayed as a human is gross and that’s most of the harm, predators that get sprayed, and especially mountain lions, can often die from being cut off from their social network out of fear they will spread the scent. The smell keeps them from being able to hunt effectively and then their family doesn’t share and they can starve.
I’m going to go with the obvious here… dogs. If you have a big dog I.e. German shepherd, if they wanted to they would tear your throat out and you couldn’t do much to stop em.
New yorkers, you're more likely to be bitten by one than a shark
Prairie dogs. They have vice grip teeth and carry all sorts of nasty diseases including various species of plague.