The blue-ringed octopus is a very small and beautiful looking animal, as it has contrasting blue-green rings that can change intensity and hue all over its body. These octopi inhabit the waters of the Indian and the Pacific oceans and are a common encounter from Japan to Australia.
These animals are quite docile, but people often handle them because they look very interesting, a major mistake, as the seemingly painless bite of the animal contains an abundance of the neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. If not treated, death due to diaphragm paralysis occurs only a few minutes after the bite.
Bite symptoms include nausea, blindness, heart failure, respiratory arrest, and paralysis. There is enough venom in one octopus to kill 26 adult humans. Luckily, there is an increased awareness about the dangers of handling blue-ringed octopi, and only 3 recent known cases have been reported.
12. Tsetse Fly
The tsetse fly is very easy to disregard, as the little insect about the size of a housefly seems no more than a nuisance. But in reality, this blood-sucking parasite is the most deadly fly in the world, as it carries the often deadly Trypanosome protozoans, the cause of African Sleeping Sickness. The tsetse fly lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is responsible for 10.000 deaths every year.
The African Sleeping Sickness ultimately infects the brain, producing terrifying symptoms like behavioral changes, tremor, paralysis, poor coordination, and other neurological and infectious symptoms. If not treated on time, the condition is deadly.
13. Cone Snails
Caribbean and Hawaiian waters hide another difficult-to-spot danger, the cone snail. There are hundreds of species of these snails, and luckily, most of them are not deadly to humans, but there are a few, like the geography cone, pictured above, that contains enough venom to kill you. The bite of these snails is venomous, shooting a cocktail of paralyzing neurotoxins in the victim’s bloodstream, causing paralysis and heart arrest.
There are 30 known deaths caused by cone snails, and even more serious injuries. So, the next time you’re collecting shells on the beach, make sure to skip the cone-shaped ones, just in case.
14. Saltwater Crocodile
Saltwater crocodiles are the even more aggressive and bloodthirsty cousins of the alligator. For one, these beasts are larger, being up to 23 ft (7 m) long and weighing over a ton. The crocs are incredibly fast swimmers and their massive jaws can crush the victim’s bones in no time, so don’t cross one of these guys if you’d like to live another day.
These killing machines live throughout the Indo-Pacific region, so you’ll find them anywhere from India and Vietnam to Australia. There are hundreds of reported attacks every year, of which about half are fatal.
15. Mosquito
Meet the deadliest animal on the planet, the annoying buzzing sound of which all of you will recognize. That’s right, mosquito bites cause the most human casualties every year, with statistics ranging between 750,000 and 1,000,000 deaths each year.
Mosquitos carry a number of dangerous diseases, such as malaria, encephalitis, Chikungunya, elephantiasis, yellow fever, the West Nile virus, dengue fever and the Zika virus, to name the most dangerous ones. Though many of these diseases are contained in certain geographical regions, according to the World Health Organization, about half of the world population is at risk of contracting mosquito-borne diseases. The best way to deal with this is through protective clothing, repellants, and other preventative methods.
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