People Explain Which Animals Many Believe Are Harmless But Are Actually Quite Dangerous

Bye-Son

"Bison, every year someone gets hurt or killed in Yellowstone because they think the bison are slow and dumb and you can take selfies with them."

"Really they are quick and powerful, but have poor eyesight. As you approach a bison it may not see you until you are close, then it can panic and gore you."

- Riverrat423

"People really treat Yellowstone like a petting zoo. Seen many videos of people being flipped into the air like ragdolls."

"Also the kid who got his chin gored because the family had the windows down"

- chiefs_fan37

"I legit cannot fathom seeing an animal as massive as a bison and assuming it’s safe to approach."

- aliceroyal

"It seems like there’s more stories coming out from Yellowstone about people getting killed or critically injured by Buffalo because they’re getting to close to them."

- shrimpsauce91

"The stupidest sh*t I ever saw in my life was the tourist I saw in Yellowstone tiptoeing through a thermal area (where the earth/crust is really thin and barely covers deep pools of boiling hot acidic water) with his camera to get closer to a bison and its calf to take a photo."

"Dude must have had a death wish."

- g-a-r-n-e-t

Cone Snail

"Cone snails."

"You see their shells decorating bathrooms all the time. But find a live one and make the mistake handling it and it will lance you with a venomous harpoon."

"For several species, such as the geography cone, this venom is sufficent to swiftly kill a human."

- Trips-Over-Tail

"Definitely snails. Certain fresh water snails carry parasitic worms that in turn carry a deadly disease known as schistosomiasis. When humans come into contact with water where these snails live they can become infected and die of organ failure."

"In sub-Saharan Africa, schistosomiasis is the second leading cause of death after malaria, with more than 200,000"

- elizletcher

"There's one species of cone snail nicknamed "cigarette snail" because the time their venom takes to kill you is about as much as it takes to smoke a cigarette."

- WeirdStray

"This is the answer I was looking for. I'll never forget reading about this as a kid and being surprised they can harpoon people and kill them while they collect shells."

- Rhodri_Suojelija

Donkey

"Donkeys although they look innocent but they have nasty kicks and bites"

- musanifshah3010

"Anybody that thinks donkeys aren't terrifying should see what happens when they get a hold of a coyote."

- mgj6818

"They have wild donkeys near Lake Pleasant. I camped there one time and I just heard this mean ass beast in the bushes—we were scared. I got up some courage and went to go look and it was just a really mean donkey."

- xXSpaceturdXx

"And even if you somehow defeat one, you'll have to fight its pissed off dragon wife next"

- P1SSY3LL0W

"Used to work near wild Burros. A lot of those Burros had scars on their backs from when a mountain lions attempted to take them down."

"Attempted, being the key word there. Saw one with a bad eye, one ear, scarred up back, and no fear in its one good eye. Of me or my SUV."

- 2DamnBig

"Donkeys are smart tho, really just don’t get on their territory unless you live their or they allow it."

"We had few and they all had different jobs. Those that moved stuff from the farm to the sorting room knew the way around the farm. We load them up and they go drop it and come back and eat a treat."

"They knew when guests are coming and would guide our herd of sheep to the other side of the farm."

"Kept our sheep protected at night.""

"Just take care of them, feed them, shelter them, and clean them. That’s all they ask for and they are loyal."

"Also let them be them. They like to run around or just lay down and do nothing, they got amazing personalities."

- momo88852

Big Big Birds

"Not everyone but I see a few people get dangerously close to big birds like hawks and eagles. I'm like, people, those birds almost got bigger claws than bears, leave them alone."

- TheShadowOfKaos

"I work with them quite often and yeah, if you don’t know what you are doing and how to properly handle them it can be very very dangerous."

"Also people letting their little tiny rabbit sized dogs walk off leash in areas where I know there are raptors drives me mad. There’s no way you’d be able to save your dog if one decided they looked like a good meal."

- chamomilehoneywhisk

"I once rescued an adult redtail hawk with a broken wing. Having to catch her up was very scary - she flopped on her back, talons up, ready to grab me."

"Luckily I was able to cover her head and grab her legs."

"Most people, if they have the sense to be afraid of raptors, fear being bitten. Nah, the beak isn't the primary weapon, those talons are!"

- sainsa

"I went on a falconry experience once, had a golden eagle on my arm which was super tame and chill, and it was still terrifying. When it jumped off my arm to take off the force sent my arm downwards about 45 degrees."

- godoflemmings

Timon

"My uncle is a zoologist and the only animal he was ever attacked by was a meerkat."

- doej0

"I’m a zoo volunteer, got bitten by a meerkat a few months ago. It just darted up and bit my finger for no reason, little jerk. They are FAST."

- Sleeplesshelley

"Small animals like that come preprogrammed with the rage of 1,000 demons."

- kendrahf

"Meerkats also have the highest environmental risk factor of any potentially escaped animal. They'll breed and dig until theyve reached carrying capacity, destroying root systems and creating deserts wherever they go."

"If you wanna cripple a nation's food supply, just drop in a few horny meerkats."

- fuckasssss

"The only scar I got from working with animals was from a meerkat, didn’t give her her chicken fast enough 🥲"

- tribblemethis

Beavers

"Beware of Beavers!"

"Beavers will stand their ground and confront a threat. If trapped, cornered, or ensnatched, a beaver will attack a human."

"The rodents' sharp teeth may cause serious injury as well as infection. Beavers carry tularemia, parasites, and rabies, which can transfer through bites, body fluids, or infected water."

"Before beavers attack humans or other animals, they send a warning by growling and hissing. On land, the animal rises to its hind legs to face a threat. In the water, a startled beaver slaps its tail against the surface to alert others in the colony before diving to safety."

- Back2Bach

"I've heard a beaver slap its tail in the water before. You'd think someone just fired a shotgun at you!"

- mikeybab123

"I had a beaver shadow me for about a half mile while I was wade fishing a small river. Whenever I stopped to fish, it swam within about 15 feet from me and slapped its tail against the water."

"So I would move farther downstream, but it would just repeat the process. It was probably protecting little ones, but finally I got so unnerved I decided that was enough fishing for one day."

- twisted_stepsister

"Nickelodeon was right. Those beavers are Angry Beavers."

- FM1091

"When I was in highschool, me and my buddies were walking along the river bank one night and I heard rustling in the tall grass up the bank. Being a very stupid teenager, I pulled the grass to the sides like a cartoon character and put my face right in there."

"I saw two large, shiny, black marbles and a yellow coffee mug. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I made out a toaster oven-sized beaver with MASSIVE yellow teeth."

"We started at each other, frozen in fear for what felt like a lifetime when I slowly closed the opening in the grass and backed out before strolling away. It was a total Scooby Doo moment."

"I didn't tell my friends until we were well away so they didn't go back and disturb it because I didn't how dangerous a beaver could be."

- Broosevelt

All-around MVPredator

"dragon flies, but not to people. I went off the beaten path hiking around an old slate town and there was a lot of horse/deer flies buzzing around attacking me. I Came across the edge of a huge beaver pond that hasn't really been touched by humans in 100+ years."

"As soon as I get to the marshy beach all the sudden i see these little flashes of black zooming around my head and all of the flies are gone these fuckin dragon flies came in and took them all out in a matter of seconds mid god damn flight."

- Outnabout3535325

"Dragonflies are really good predators. They are the perfect flying machines"

- gandalfium225

"Dragonflies actually have the highest kill ratio of any animal"

"I don't remember the exact stat, but its over 90% of the time they hit their target."

- Gasp32

"Dragonflies are vicious, vicious predators. Something like 95% success rate at hunting, they can fly up to 30 mph, and are ridiculously agile, about to fly up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards, and can hover."

- Dorgamund

"Yeah, they will pick them right off your skin while in mid-bite. When I was working in a forest we used to go to bridge over a water way in the evening to get some relief from the bugs. The relief was an airforce of dragon flies feasting on those bastards."

- socialism-scientific

"As an avid outdoorsman, I regularly plan trips to certain areas based upon predictions and reports about whether dragonflies are out yet that year."

"They are true friends of the outdoors enthusiast."

"But they do, in fact, pack a nasty bite if they so choose to use it. Usually they don't, but I've been bitten by them before and it hurts like f*cking hell. I still love them."

- flargenhargen

"The real heroes."

- Dark_Vengence

Flippin Flipper

"Dolphins. Those things can be little psychopaths."

- AgentAwesome2008

"Came here for this. The biggest rapists and druggies on the planet"

- LordChaos404

"Little meat torpedoes that can weigh over half a ton, bite like crocodiles and sometimes find humans sexually attractive."

- Nephilims_Dagger

"YES!! One bit me at Sea World, I thought it was an accident because it was a feeding tank but he turned around and BIT ME AGAIN."

"Tons of other kids were standing there, that bottle nosed bastard targeted me!"

"I don’t blame it though, poor guy living in captivity."

- Fishbate333

Careful With The Fedora

"Platypus. The males have a big venom spike on their back legs, which is intensely painful."

"This sounds like a joke, but it’s absolutely true."

- IncredulousPulp

"Platypus is an animal that makes so little sense the first person to send one back to Europe was labeled a fraud."

"Like other monotremes, it senses prey through electrolocation. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals, as the male platypus has a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom, capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, and the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body (in 1799) judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.[5]" -Wikipedia"

- shwaga

"They are also surprisingly fast at chasing you on land, and it's looks hilarious until they catch you"

- Deadlybutterknife

"I also heard they make for a great secret agent…"

- Mecha106

"Their venom is so painful infact morphine can't even touch it. You have to pinch off the nerves thus fully numbing the area to find relief from the pain."

- The_Book-JDP

"HE’S A SEMI-AQUATIC EGG-LAYING MAMMAL OF ACTION!"

- FinniboiXD

"I saw a segment from a documentary series about stings and bites once. This guy grabbed a platypus by accident because he was trying to grab hold of a log. It spurred his hand and caused him excruciating pain. At the hospital, the doctors had to figure out how to stop the pain because they had given him so much morphine that anymore would have been dangerous, and it had little to no effect on the pain."

"They were able to figure something out, but it took several months for the guy to be able to fully use that hand again."

- CelticGaelic

"The platypus is nature's way of saying "I made this thing out of spare parts I found lying around the workshop and it can still f*cking cripple you."

- Hypersapien

"But the females can sweat milk"

- Easthwestnorth

Pigs

"Pigs, people thinks they are harmless packs of bacon but in reality they can easily kill you if annoyed"

- clari_man

"There's a reason everyone on the farm in Wizard of Oz freaked out when Dorothy fell into the pigpen in the beginning."

- WineAndDogs2020

"And they are omnivorous. They will eat you, if they have the chance."

- Apotak

"My grandparents always kept animals and my grandmother grew up on a farm. She was always the most afraid of the pigs and always said as much. Pigs are dangerous and can be quiet a bit larger then people imagine."

- thiswilltakeamiracle

"My aunt tripped one day feeding her pig, he was on her in a second. She managed to drag herself partially upright while he tried to get a good grip on her legs and grab the ballpeen hammer hanging on the side of the barn. She ended up having to smash his skull in while he was trying to crush/eat her."

"I can't imagine how terrified she was and I'm so happy she was able to pull herself up enough to grab the hammer"

- MossyDwarf

Are you feeling suddenly uncomfortable in the food chain?

Us too.