Rainforests are found in different parts of the world and receive hundreds of visitors annually given the bio diversity that exists therein. In fact, if statistics is anything to go by, it is believed that over half of the species in the world resides in the rainforests. The beauty presented by the rainforests is so magical that it cannot easily be put in words. You only have to visit the one of the many rainforests, such as Amazon or Daintree or Alaska to see the lush beauty.
Nonetheless, the forests are also a home to some of the most dangerous animals in the world. There have been cases where lives have been lost when the animals felt threatened by the human presence. Illustrated herein are some of the most dangerous animals that can be found in the vast rainforests worldwide.
1. Cassowaries:
This is an animal you do not want to have contact with. They are ratites (a type of flightless bird) that live in the tropical forests of New Guinea. Male Cassowaries are overprotective parents who will kill if they and their young ones feel threatened. Try hiding and holding still as you see one of these animals. Usually they will walk away.
2. Scorpions:
Scorpions live mostly in the Tropical Rainforest. They largely eat insects and spiders. Their enemies are snakes and animals that are larger than them. Interestingly enough, the female kills and eats the male scorpion after mating.
The Scorpion kills its prey with its tail that has a stinger on it. Humans are sometimes their targets. It is thought that there are 10 scorpion inflicted deaths for every snake death in the developing countries.
3. Jaguar:
The jaguar is the largest and the most powerful wildcat; larger than a leopard. An adult jaguar can be 4 to 7 feet long, without the tail. They are mostly found in North America, in parts of Texas, Colorado and Arizona. As they prefer wet lowlands, their favourite place to live is the tropical and subtropical forests. When it comes to prey, it eats more than 80 types of animals, including cattle, rodents, deer, birds, and fish. The jaguar only hunts humans, if they feel cornered. They are the most destructive and dangerous as they do kill people’s cattle and horses.
4. Bengal Tiger:
The Bengal tiger is mainly located in rainforests found in Asia. It can live up to 15 years and can have litters of up to four cubs. As it is a carnivore, it eats boars, wild oxens and monkeys. The Bengal Tiger actually accounts for over half of the tigers that reside in the wild. Apparently, the Bengal tigers attack human beings when it feels threatened and intimidated. Although humans are not their intended target, tigers are always cautious and have shown no preference for human meat.
5. Poison Arrow Frog:
Poison Arrow Frog is the most deadly of all kinds of frogs in the world. It is mainly found in rainforests located in Central and South America. The frog measures between 1.5 and 2.4 cm long. The most toxic of all is the golden poison arrow. The venom from the frog is enough to kill ten men. They secrete toxins through their skins.
6. Gaboon Viper:
The gaboon viper is a snake that is mainly found in rainforests located in Eastern, Western and Central Africa. It mainly feeds on birds, tiny mammals and amphibians. The fangs contain a deadly toxin that can be fatal in a matter of minutes in humans. The snake measures approximately 4 to 5 feet long. This makes them the largest Vipers in Africa, weighing close to 20kg and having fangs up to 2.25 inches long.
7. Crocodiles:
Crocodiles can be found in almost all the forests in the world that have rivers running through them, for instance, the Amazon forest is a home to different types of crocodiles. Other than being one of the most dangerous animals in the world, it is also believed to be one of the oldest animals since creation. Crocodiles can also be found in forests located in Africa and Australia. They are the most deadly animals when it comes to catching its prey. All they have to do is lie still in water without any movement. At times humans confuse them for rocks. When it launches to catch its prey, it does at the speed of a missile. Once it has its prey firmly on its grip, it then pulls it to the deeper parts of the water where it cannot fight for its life. Approximately, 800 human lives are lost worldwide due to crocodile attacks.
8. Mosquito:
One may laugh at the thought of a mosquito being one of the most deadly animals in the rainforest. People need to know that mosquitoes cause hundreds of visitors to not be able to reach the Sapo National Park in Liberia.
The mosquito feeds on humans by inserting its jagged mouth parts into the human skin. At the moment, the person is most likely not suspecting anything. Before beginning to feed, it induces a virus under the skin so as to liquidize the blood. A couple of days after the bite, one starts to experience fever and joint pain. If not treated on time, a person bitten by the mosquito can succumb to a fever and die from Malaria (carried by Mosquitos). 3 million people die annually from the disease.
9. Alligators:
Alligators can also be found in marshy or swampy areas of the forest. They are approximately 14 feet long and can weigh up to 1000lbs. Just as crocodiles, alligators are dangerous and kill on sight. Just in Florida, 300 humans were bitten by alligators; 22 of whom died since 1948.
10. Bats:
Not considered by many as dangerous, but, when bitten by a bat, chances are that you can develop certain diseases such as rabies that could be fatal to you in the long run.
Think you have a typo re the Green Anaconda. You wrote can be up to “2ft.” ?? I understand 16′ is fairly average with considerably longer not uncommon.
I really expected number 10 to be a picture of Obama, but as an afterthought it could have been, who knows how many hundreds of others, one of the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Bushes, George Soros, etc, etc?
What about the polar bear?
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110805/D9OU5ELO0.html
Don’t you mean the green anaconda can be 2 feet WIDE?
Also the Gaboon Viper looks a lot longer than 2 inches… Did you mean two feet?
Who wrote/edited this abysmal piece of junk literature? A 550 pound, two-foot long anaconda? A two-inch long Gaboon viper? Alligators kill on sight? GMAFB!!
The most dangerous animal in the world is quite obviously Homo Sapien. Ask the North American Bison or the Passenger Pigeon if you doubt me.
Doesn’t anybody edit what they publish? Green Anaconda weighing hundreds of pounds and two inches long? Gaboon Viper again, two inches long? Come on, edit what you publish.
Shouldn’t Congress critters be #1 on this list?
You’re joking right? Or is this published as part of Writing 101, don’t let this happen to you? Anacondas have never, no not so much as one varified, killed a human. Ditto for the tree bowa. Gaboon Vipers are unaggressive to the extreme (even its far more active and aggressive Black Mamba is little threat to bite you unprovoked). You surely would not want a Gaboon Viper to bite you but the odds of that happening are infitesimal. Alligators kill on sight? That is shere idiocy. I live in Florida’s Green Swamp. Gators are scared sh**less of humans and will FLEE on sight. Bats? It’s proven that if a bat has a disease fatal to humans, THEY die before they can get bite a human. Bats rank among natures most beneficial animals to man. How can a poison arrow frog possibly be classed as dangerous when the only way they can poison you is if you’re stupid enough to bite or lick one. Jaguars and Tigers are way too endangered in the wild to be listed. The Nile and the Idio Pacific esterine crocodiles are extremely dangerous. The American crocodile is almost as shy as gators. That leaves the one creature truly most dangerous to man- the mosquito. BTW you want a most dangerous large animal, as someone who lived in Africa for ten-years, I nominate the Hippo.
The 550 pound anaconda is “2 feet.” Two feet what? Long? Or two feet between the eyes? The Gaboon viper is 2 inches long? No, it’s quite a bit longer than that, but its FANGS are two inches long.
Aside from those obvious errors, the whole article was about as poorly written as one can imagine. Sentence structure, punctuation, word usage, etc. should leave the writer ashamed.
The theme was certainly interesting, too bad it was nearly unreadable.
Poorly written article. You should write for the Times.
What terrible writing. The lack of credible research is worse than that. The author sounds like they are 10 years old.
Aside from the glaring errors about snake size and such, there are other questions as well. How were the animals rated? What make the animals more dangerous than others.
The mosquito story is just over the top. Blood is already liquid. It doesn’t need to be “liquidized”. It doesn’t inject a virus under the skin, it secretes protiens that cause the blood not to coagulate. Not all mosquitos carry deadly diseases. Only females feed on blood. ALL of this can be found in the Wikipedia in a matter of minutes. Good grief, if this is what passes for education here in the US then it’s no small wonder we have Obama in the White House
Looks like this child was left behind.
Other than the typos… joking of course? No known cases of tree boa killing humans. Gabon vipers have the longest fangs and are sluggish and deadly yes ( when people step on them). This list should include critters from outside the rainforest like moose or polar bear… research; then confirm; then edit…
No mention of the grizzly bear, the polar bear, the hippo, or the lion. If I were a large, mammalian predator, I would be insulted! and BTW the Gaboon viper is 4 to 6 foot long as an adult. Its FANGS are two inches. I know this for a fact, as I used to have one as a neighbor.
Humans are by far the most dangerous creature you’ll ever encounter. As with anything, of course, it depends on the competence of the human in question who might be after you. But I’d rather take my chances with a bat or gator.
Horse Hocky. The most dangerous animal is the Anopheles mosquito. The diseases it spreads kill hundreds of thousands if not millions each year in the tropics to temperate zones. Also hippos kill more people than all other large African predators combined. I hear that you never see them coming until they’ve bitten you AND your boat in half.
Not very well written or researched. D- Try harder next time.
Did someone’s child put this together for their 3rd grade school project?
If not, author should purchase large cal handgun and promptly disregard instruction manual whilst sitting alone.
Best regards,
how about allien