A WoW Public Service Announcement

Thursday, September 07, 2006

What are the world's most dangerous animals?
Since the death of Steve Irwin, we have discovered how truly undangerous stingrays really are, and how his death was more of a fluke than anything else. Toyi left a comment in my blog how she thinks now stingrays are more dangerous than scorpions, which I don't agree with. Only 17 people have died from stingray attack since 1945; Mortality rates for scorpions sting while only at 4% are still much more common occurences especially in Africa and the Middle East (a Iranian News articel reported that 25,000 people were stung last year in one province). So I did some research for my WoWees to tell them what animals are most likely to kill them? Well, here we go.

Now, I am going to leave out some really stupid animals. Mosquitos probably kill more humans than any other animal in the world, cars crashing into deer/moose/cow/gnus/yaks also account for hundreds of death per year. I am also not interested in rabies which a lot of raccoon get and result in human deaths. Surprisingly stats on numbers of deaths are hard to come by. So, this list will not be in any order.

10: Blue ringed Octopus
This tiny golf ball sized octupus is the most toxic animal in the sea. There is no antidote. The organism delivers it in it's bite through it's saliva. It is toxic enough to kill 26 humans. It causes almost immediate cardiac arrest. People have survived, but it is not common. Don't step on one if you are in tide polls of the Asian/Australian Pacific Shores.

9: Crocodiles
It is estimated that several hundred people per year are killed by either Salt Water or Nile Crocdiles. While taking proper measures can avoid being killed by these things, they are very opportunistic predators and are even known tip small boats.

8: Elephant
Don't be fooled by Dumbo, Elephants can be very aggressive, and can easily kill a human. Over the past 50 or so years, herds of enraged elephants have trampled villages in both India and Africa. Elephants just seem to snap. I will never look at Barbar the same way again.

7: Hippopotamus
According to most stats, the Hippo and Cape Buffallo have caused more human deaths in Africa than any other animal. The Hippo is extremely territorial. They have been known to overture boats, and kill the occupants in a rampage. Their tusk are sharp, and like daggers, and they have severed limbs and heds with them. Hippos are known in africa to cause destruction of both property and agriculture intentionally.

6: Cape Buffalo
Neck and neck with the Hippo, the cape buffalo is aggressive and powerful. A sigle cape buffalo can kill several lions. Lions rarely hunt them unless really hungry, and it take 2 - 3 lions to bring down one buffalo.

5: Sharks
First, sharks are not as dangerous as most people think they are statswise. In 2005, there were only 69 attacks, and only 6 were fatal. The problem with sharks is the could be very dangerous. Sharks are fearsome predators, and the biggest the Great White could pretty much kill anything it want to.

3: Box Jellyfish
Box Jellyfish are very poisnous and have killed more than 60 people since 1988. Common to Australia, it has been found that vinegar, counteracts the toxins if applied right away.

2: Great Cats
Generally reclusive, and avoiding contact with humans, but between the tigers of Asia, African lions, leopards and cheetahs and the great cats of the Americans dozens of people each year are killed by these things. Plus all cats are mentally ill.

1: Indian Cobras
Last year 50,000 people in India were killed by a Cobra of one sort or another. They are not the most poisonous; the most frightening part about this, is Cobra fire blanks and only envenomate 50% of the time. Additionally, many envenomating Cobra bites are survivable if acted on quickly. Cobras are pretty frightening, hooded, and big (the king Cobra can grow close to 20' long). The King Cobra also has a very high fatality rate (75% of bites die). Auto C and YPG are probably the most likely of us to die from a animal attack.

Surprising many other snakes, spiders, and sea life don't make the list, they just don't kill enough people. Spiders came close (the Brown Recluse, and Black Widow are responsible for about 200 deaths since the 1880's), but they just don't have the range, commonality, or agressiveness to make the list. Polar Bear, or bears in general also cause a number of human deaths, so they get an honorable mention.

And speaking of Stingrays, their page has been locked by wikipedia due to recent vandalism.

Which brings me to Steven Irwin.
Many people are shocked by the outpouring for of sadness for Steve Irwin. One news source stated it has not seen this since the death of Princess Diana (Hey Elton John, make a song for Steve-O. Goodbye Steve Irwin . . . ). I will tell you why. Unlike most celebrities, Irwin was not a narcissitic prick, was very down to Earth and very real. He was much like you or I.

Finally.
There is a running debate going on at TCG about what WoW should acutally stand for. Follow along, chime in if you want.

I am Malach and a stingray killed little bit of all of us Monday.