Scariest animal in the history of man!

[yesdachi]

Scariest animal in the history of man!

According to books, movies, folk tales and nursery rhymes the wolf is probably the scariest animal in the history of Europe, North America and Russia. The wolf is obviously not the most deadly but is there an animal that has caused more fear?

There are plenty of scary animals out there but which ones really strike fear when mentioned like the wolf did to Euro travelers lost in the woods back in the day? Or has inspired books, folk tales and nursery rhymes to scare children?

What replaces the wolf as the scariest animal in other areas of the world? China? Africa? South America?

As a general criteria, I would have to say the animal has to cause serious fear. Lots of people are afraid of spiders but you don’t run for your life if you see 6 of them, or even hear someone scream their name. Also, no mythical (dragon) or out of time (t-rex) animals. And finally, many people in the past might have run if they heard “The British are coming! The British are coming!” but I don’t consider them in contention .

[Kagemusha]

One animal that scares almost anyone around the globe is the snake.It is a primal reaction for a human to be scared of snakes.

[Marcellus]

I'm not sure if people would scream when the name is said, but I think that the Cayman is particularly scary: it just stares at you, still, for hours. But if something goes near it, it snaps. Rather Scary.

[dgfred]

Yell 'Shark' around some swimmers and you will find a panic almost immediately .

[Kraxis]

Yes, I believe the shark is the most feared animal. There are even some who hate it with a vengeance, like you hate rats.

When I say shark, I say the big bad sharks, not those small cuddly mouse sharks for instance.

[Taurus]

Spiders imo. I hate the things.

[GoreBag]

Deep sea fish. There is not a collection of more bizarre, grotesque and frighteningly and efficiently murderous creatures on the planet.

[Kralizec]

Kinda hard...
How about crows?

Seriously, when walking alone into a forest populated by lots of them...silence, except for the sounds of hundreds of crows in the treetops...birds who like to feast on the eyes and other soft parts of their victims...

[econ21]

The trite answer is man, of course. Even the hungriest pack of wolves has nothing on a gang of marauding armed men. Vastly more lethal, persistent, intelligent, capable and cruel. Imagine being a Jew trapped in the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 or a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time in just about any conflict. Give me the wolfpack any time.

I suspect we - or our ancestors - killed out most of the really deadly land animals. (Just like the Europeans pretty much killed off the occaisionally deadly wolf.) The one's leftover are more scared of us than we of them. Sea creatures haven't learnt that they should fear us; that's one reason sharks are so scarey. But I suspect it is only relatively recently when people have started to swim in areas where large sharks frequent that they have been widely feared.

In Asia, I guess the scarey equivalent of the wolf would be the tiger. Like the wolf, they generally leave people alone but could be lethal to the unlucky. Ambushing at night, it's physically overpowering to the unarmed and difficult to hunt.

In Africa, I am not sure what locals fear. Maybe not much - which is why so much of the big wildlife has survived there. The crocodile exacts a fearful death toll but I don't think it is much feared - maybe because it is so bound to the water. The lion and the hyena generally give man a wide bearth.
White hunters used to rate lone buffalo and bull elephants as the most formiddable African land animals to face, although they'll only kill you because you upset them rather than because you might taste good.

[CBR]

The wolf might be hated and feared in Europe but if there was one animal that the a lonely stone age man wouldnt want to encounter it would be a bear.


CBR

[Beirut]

Kinda hard...
How about crows?

Seriously, when walking alone into a forest populated by lots of them...silence, except for the sounds of hundreds of crows in the treetops...birds who like to feast on the eyes and other soft parts of their victims...

Ha! I thought you said cows. When I got to the part about "walking through the forest hearing hundreds of cows in the treetops", what an image I had in my head. Then I saw the word "birds" after and reread the title sentence. Oh well. Fun while it lasted.

[GoreBag]

I'm not budging from my point at all. Ever. One documentary on deep sea fish will change the way you view the sea.

http://www.os42.com/wp-images/linkdumps/deepseafish.jpg

Holy crap.

[Red Harvest]

Yes, I believe the shark is the most feared animal. There are even some who hate it with a vengeance, like you hate rats.

When I say shark, I say the big bad sharks, not those small cuddly mouse sharks for instance.

Not divers, we love sharks, the bigger the better. Problem is, sharks don't like us. Seems that having something swim towards *them* sends the wrong message...so they flee. I still remember my first glimpse of a big hammerhead.

Scariest animal? Fear wise I would say snakes. They catch you by surprise. It isn't that they are a great threat, but more that they tend to be silent and surprise you. There is nothing quite like reaching into a chicken nest to collect the eggs and realizing there is a blacksnake in there, that you can't see, but clearly feel. Or running down a dirt path and realizing a fallen "limb" is actually a snake. Or having one make his way into your house with the laundry.

The one that concerns me when backpacking/hiking/camping is the bear. They are simply too big to contend with, they are attracted to your food, and they can climb if they want to. (Polar bears would be the ultimate...since they have no fear of humans and will stalk a person down.)

Wolves, coyotes, dogs don't concern me (only for my kids who are too small to kill animals like that by hand.) I would be much more concerned about a tiger or lion. I've heard mountain lions in our woods at night back in Missouri--they really spooked the cattle. Much scarier than anything else I've heard in the wild.

[discovery1]

Humbolt squid. Imagine seeing one of these comng at you(they have been known to attack humans, and each other). Actually, I would say the Giant Squid, but none have been in waters we frequent for long.

[GoreBag]

Humbolt squid. Imagine seeing one of these comng at you(they have been known to attack humans, and each other). Actually, I would say the Giant Squid, but none have been in waters we frequent for long.

That counts under my "deep sea fish" category - you're absolutely right.

[discovery1]

That counts under my "deep sea fish" category - you're absolutely right.

Most deep sea life I don't think is very scary. Sure they look nasty, but they are the size of my fist, head maybe. These things can be as big as I am(>6 feet) and much stronger.

[GoreBag]

Most deep sea life I don't think is very scary. Sure they look nasty, but they are the size of my fist, head maybe. These things can be as big as I am(>6 feet) and much stronger.

Most go from a foot to 3 feet. I don't think it would matter much, though - encountering any of them would mean you'd be too deep to see. Besides, some of them are more tooth than body.

[Byzantine Prince]

Homo Sapiens. Never has there been a more terrifying creature!

[LeftEyeNine]

Noone ever mentioned the owls ?

If we are talking about something primarily "scary", then owls should go for top five.

There was some deep sea fish that has a face of a cat-family animal face, with a tentacle growing from his nose which has an organic illuminator at the end. My god, these deep waters are already full of aliens, no need to look for them in space.

[GoreBag]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programm...es/prog2_2.jpg

The Angler Fish, you mean? You're right, though - they do look like aliens. Man, they're freaky.

[LeftEyeNine]

If it has an organic illuminator, that's it..

I bet alien invasion type FPS game designers are well aware of deep sea fishes.. Brrr.. What a face.. (Face ?..Well, not sure 'bout that..)

[Redleg]

The scariest animal in the history of man is you guessed it - the animals that used to hunt man.

[LeftEyeNine]

Neongod,

You're right, that's it.. (even "it" can not describe such a thing.. My Lord..)

More of it..



(Linking others to save bandwith..The one above looks "enough" of it, though..)

https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/...montage1kz.jpg

https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/...thparasiti.jpg

[Strike For The South]

insects so tiny so scary

[GoreBag]

More on the Angler Fish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish

Some anglerfish have a unique mating method. Without light, finding a mate is a problem, especially at a time when both individuals are ready to spawn. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfishes, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turns out that these "parasites" were the males. When a male anglerfish is hatched, he has extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. He has no digestive system. His goal in life is to detect the pheromones that the female anglerfishes release. When he finds a female, he bites into her flank which releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body. The two then fuse together, including blood vessels. The male degenerates into nothing more than a pair of gonads that releases sperm when the female releases hormones into the bloodstream that signals she is ready to release her eggs. This is an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. If the male anglerfish doesn't find a female, he dies.

Wow. Even sex is grotesque with the Anglers.

[Redleg]

Well that is slightly better then the Black Widow Spider - she gets to dine on her mate afterwards, or is it just kill. Can't remember.

[AntiochusIII]

Well that is slightly better then the Black Widow Spider - she gets to dine on her mate afterwards, or is it just kill. Can't remember.

Dine. But still...

The abomination of the male forever trapped and degenerates on his female mate's body!!!

I fear thee, deep sea creatures.

[Zalmoxis]

Neongod,

You're right, that's it.. (even "it" can not describe such a thing.. My Lord..)

More of it..



(Linking others to save bandwith..The one above looks "enough" of it, though..)

https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/...montage1kz.jpg

https://img379.imageshack.us/img379/...thparasiti.jpg

If only those things were twenty meters long and ate ships.

[Shaka_Khan]

The grizzly is the scariest in my opinion.




The scariest in man's history were the ones from the Ice Age:



Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis)
(compare the eagle's size with the moa bird)



Smilodon (compare the fossil size with the human)

[Productivity]

Not divers, we love sharks, the bigger the better. Problem is, sharks don't like us. Seems that having something swim towards *them* sends the wrong message...so they flee. I still remember my first glimpse of a big hammerhead.

Yes I can agree with that - I've actually had a hammerhead glide right past me on the surface once. I like sharks though, I just recognise that they are part of the risk of diving.

The ones that freak me out are big rays. Now I like rays - I really do. But when a 3m across ray sneaks up on you and then glides ~1m over the top of you it's worrying. I really would like them a lot more if they were polite enough to not sneak up on me.

Aside from that, junior yacht clubs are pretty scary. See that blue and white flag? That's a diving flag. It means there is an exclusion zone around the boat with it on it. DO NOT COME NEAR IT. Seeing the keel of a yacht come within a metre of you is worrying to say the least.