Defining ‘most dangerous’ can be tricky, as it depends on what you mean. If we simply mean which animals kill the most Americans per year, the answer would be insects, more specifically stinging insects such as wasps, bees and hornets.
This is because many people are allergic to their stings and die from anaphylaxis. Between 2011 and 2021, 788 people died as a result of these types of stings in the USA.
What's the most dangerous animal in the USA?
However, if we are talking about which animal is the most likely to kill you in a single encounter, a top contender would be the North American brown bear. Though the total number of deaths from brown bear attacks is not high, cited at 82 since 1784, this is certainly an animal you wouldn’t want to get too close to.
It is considered to be one of the more aggressive bear species, especially when defending its young, and possesses fearsome claws up to 10cm long. Thankfully, it tends to avoid contact with humans and only attacks when it feels threatened.
Other top contenders for the USA’s most dangerous animal include venomous snakes. The country is home to numerous species of potentially deadly snakes, including rattlesnakes, copperheads and coral snakes.
An estimated 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes every year in the USA. Fatalities are pretty rare, however, with just five per year. The key factor for survival is good medical care; deaths are much more common in poorer, rural regions without easy access to hospitals and antivenom treatments.
Though not to be trifled with, what all these examples show is that despite the ample wilderness of the USA compared to the UK, wild animals don’t pose that much of a threat. In fact, the vast majority of animal-related deaths result from encounters with domestic animals, farm animals in particular. The average US citizen is much more likely to be trampled by a cow than mauled by a bear, or kicked by a horse than bitten by a snake.
In terms of the numbers of fatalities attributed to one animal, the top spot is taken by… deer! These animals do not go on the rampage; the ‘danger’ associated with them is their sub-par road-crossing abilities.
Road traffic accident data reveals that a significant number of collisions have involved people hitting deer at high speeds. Deer collisions are thought to be responsible for as many as 440 human deaths per year. From this, we can conclude that the most dangerous animal in the USA is the shy and retiring deer.
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