What’s the World’s Deadliest Creature?

755,000

MOSQUITOES

200,000

SNAILS

94,000

SNAKES

61,000

DOGS

12,000

ASSASSIN BUGS

3,250

SCORPIONS

2,000

TSETSE FLIES

1,000

CROCODILES

300

ELEPHANTS

100

DEER

30

JELLYFISH

From car accidents to murder, humans kill more humans each year than any animal does–approximately 1.6 million

Freshwater snails in tropical and subtropical climates can carry schistosomiasis, a deadly parasitic disease

Trypanosomiasis, a sleeping sickness carried by the tsetse fly, occurs mostly in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa

The assassin bug carries Chagas’ disease, which damages the heart and nervous system

Nearly 90% of hippopotamus attacks on humans are deadly

Proportion of deaths represented above

Hoping to stop the spread of deadly diseases, scientists in Florida plan to release millions of genetically modified male mosquitoes engineered to keep their partners from producing offspring

Deer can be deadly when they run in front of motor vehicles

Dogs with rabies are still killers in Asia and Africa

Sharks may be scary, but they killed only three people worldwide in 2014

SOURCES: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION; PLOS MEDICINE; ACTA TROPICA; GATES NOTES; WWF; TRAFFIC INJURY PREVENTION; NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION