These deadly animals will kill you in seconds
22 January 2011 21:48Everyone knows that big, mean animals can kill you.
Most people with common sense try to avoid creatures with big teeth and claws and eyes that view humans as a potential next meal.
Lions and sharks and bears and rhinos, slithering jungle snakes, chomping alligators and crocodiles, and even jumping fanged spiders are to be avoided at all costs.
Yet thousands of people lose their lives every year to harmless-looking animals that can kill or paralyze a human in a matter of moments. These are the secret killers that strike out and steal away a person's life when least expected.
Many of the dead and dying are vacationers, often visiting exotic, adventurous spots featuring enticing food and drink, great weather, bright sunshine...and a handful of death lurking around the next corner.
The insidious golden poison frog
The last thing you might see before you die...
Many people that come across this tiny frog think it's cute. Some even want to touch or pet it.
Usually that's the last mistake they ever make in life because their life is over.
Looks cuter than a King cobra, huh? Don't let it fool you!
The harmless looking critter is the most poisonous vertebrate in the world. It secretes a deadly toxin through its skin.
Those foolish enough to touch the frog instantly absorb the poison it excretes. It rapidly travels through the bloodstream attacking the central nervous system. Within minutes the brain is unable to transmit any signals through the nerve network causing terminal paralysis.
Worse, the vagus nerve—the main nerve from the brain to the heart—is finally shut down causing immediate heart failure.
Even touching leaves or twigs that the frog has rested on can bring quick paralysis and inexorable, numbing death.
The damn thing looks like it wants to be petted!
Deadly data facts: One milligram of the frog's poison can kill 10 to 20 people. One gram of the horrendous toxin is enough to kill up to 15,000 people.
The colorful cone snail
Some can't resist the shell for their collection
Tourists visiting islands or the coastal waters of the tropics and Southern Hemisphere sometimes meet up with the cone snail. When they spot it they're thrilled, and the shell of the snail is so beautifully formed some people decide to snatch it up off the seafloor and take it back home with them.
If they do that the odds are the snail will remain at its home while the tourist returns to theirs in a coffin.
Poison harpoon tooth ready to kill
The cone snail protects its shell—and itself—with a deadly harpoon tooth. The tooth is like a hypodermic needle that is designed to ward off an attack by striking out and injecting a fiery toxin into the body of a predator. A human trying to pick up the snail and take it home qualifies as a predator. The snail responds instinctively.
A snail can fire its harpoon tooth in any direction; some snails have multiple harpoons.
The deadly toxin is the same as that found in other ocean foes like the blue-ringed octopus and the puffer fish. The nerve poison can ruin your whole day and probably end your life.
Deadly data facts: The puffer fish is the delicacy prepared by Japanese chefs and eaten by crazy Asian businessmen who—every once in awhile—fall face forward, dead, onto their dinner platewhile eating it. No one eats the cone snail.
The five-inch blue-ringed octopus
What could be more cute and cuddly than the tiny blue-ringed octopus? At least some people think so. They're in for a shock though, if they're stupid enough to touch it.
The shimmering, multi-colored octopus does look like a living, moving work of art. It makes its homein tide pools on the coasts of Australia and Japan.
When divers happen upon it, the poor little thing seems so docile and harmless, after all, it's only about five inches in length and the tentacles are smaller than a pencil.
It's one of the deadliest creatures on the planet and carries enough venom in its poison glands to kill 26 humans horribly.
With a bite worse than the feared Black Momba snake, this little killer will attack immediately if it feels threatened. Divers that accidentally step on it are dead within minutes.
Deadly data facts: No known antidote exists for the blue-ringed octopus venom. The toxin is a nerve poison that paralyzes, just like the cone snail and puffer fish, but the concentration is much stronger and it's always lethal.
A pretty, tiny frog; an alluring cone-shaped shell; a cute octopus...seeing what these things can do, lions and tigers and bears don't seem quite so frightening after all...
Most people with common sense try to avoid creatures with big teeth and claws and eyes that view humans as a potential next meal.
Lions and sharks and bears and rhinos, slithering jungle snakes, chomping alligators and crocodiles, and even jumping fanged spiders are to be avoided at all costs.
Yet thousands of people lose their lives every year to harmless-looking animals that can kill or paralyze a human in a matter of moments. These are the secret killers that strike out and steal away a person's life when least expected.
Many of the dead and dying are vacationers, often visiting exotic, adventurous spots featuring enticing food and drink, great weather, bright sunshine...and a handful of death lurking around the next corner.
The insidious golden poison frog
The last thing you might see before you die...
Usually that's the last mistake they ever make in life because their life is over.
Looks cuter than a King cobra, huh? Don't let it fool you!
The harmless looking critter is the most poisonous vertebrate in the world. It secretes a deadly toxin through its skin.
Those foolish enough to touch the frog instantly absorb the poison it excretes. It rapidly travels through the bloodstream attacking the central nervous system. Within minutes the brain is unable to transmit any signals through the nerve network causing terminal paralysis.
Worse, the vagus nerve—the main nerve from the brain to the heart—is finally shut down causing immediate heart failure.
Even touching leaves or twigs that the frog has rested on can bring quick paralysis and inexorable, numbing death.
The damn thing looks like it wants to be petted!
Deadly data facts: One milligram of the frog's poison can kill 10 to 20 people. One gram of the horrendous toxin is enough to kill up to 15,000 people.
The colorful cone snail
Some can't resist the shell for their collection
Tourists visiting islands or the coastal waters of the tropics and Southern Hemisphere sometimes meet up with the cone snail. When they spot it they're thrilled, and the shell of the snail is so beautifully formed some people decide to snatch it up off the seafloor and take it back home with them.
If they do that the odds are the snail will remain at its home while the tourist returns to theirs in a coffin.
Poison harpoon tooth ready to kill
The cone snail protects its shell—and itself—with a deadly harpoon tooth. The tooth is like a hypodermic needle that is designed to ward off an attack by striking out and injecting a fiery toxin into the body of a predator. A human trying to pick up the snail and take it home qualifies as a predator. The snail responds instinctively.
A snail can fire its harpoon tooth in any direction; some snails have multiple harpoons.
The deadly toxin is the same as that found in other ocean foes like the blue-ringed octopus and the puffer fish. The nerve poison can ruin your whole day and probably end your life.
Deadly data facts: The puffer fish is the delicacy prepared by Japanese chefs and eaten by crazy Asian businessmen who—every once in awhile—fall face forward, dead, onto their dinner platewhile eating it. No one eats the cone snail.
The five-inch blue-ringed octopus
What could be more cute and cuddly than the tiny blue-ringed octopus? At least some people think so. They're in for a shock though, if they're stupid enough to touch it.
The shimmering, multi-colored octopus does look like a living, moving work of art. It makes its homein tide pools on the coasts of Australia and Japan.
When divers happen upon it, the poor little thing seems so docile and harmless, after all, it's only about five inches in length and the tentacles are smaller than a pencil.
It's one of the deadliest creatures on the planet and carries enough venom in its poison glands to kill 26 humans horribly.
With a bite worse than the feared Black Momba snake, this little killer will attack immediately if it feels threatened. Divers that accidentally step on it are dead within minutes.
Deadly data facts: No known antidote exists for the blue-ringed octopus venom. The toxin is a nerve poison that paralyzes, just like the cone snail and puffer fish, but the concentration is much stronger and it's always lethal.
A pretty, tiny frog; an alluring cone-shaped shell; a cute octopus...seeing what these things can do, lions and tigers and bears don't seem quite so frightening after all...
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