Scariest animal in the history of man!

[Watchman]

Because your horizons are too narrow and mammalocentric ? Come on now - human intestines don't look like they're from this planet.

[LeftEyeNine]

Maybe it's only you who has a narrow horizon and does not sound like from this planet ? (Let's put a smiley here, so that I can say anything I want without ever getting noticed..Hmm that looks OK.)

I'd prefer a reply : " Well, do not take it that way. The mammals are the dominant visible organisms and so that you may be thinking the other species look different "

[Gregoshi]

Even in a discussion about scary animals...

[LeftEyeNine]

Sorry Greg, I did not intend to start an argument. It's all about watching your words..

[GoreBag]

I think the deep sea fish look more alien than insects do. Granted, that Lexx spaceship and its smaller ancillary ships were based off of insects..

I don't think intestines look that alien at all.

[The Stranger]

Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AntiochusIII]

Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No. You're not scary. Sorry, but I'll run away from any direct contact with deep sea fish, a shark, a big, big cat of all kinds, a crocodile, a hippopotamus, and more before I even notice you.

BTW I'm wondering if all dragons in fantasy and reality, including famous ones like Glaurung, all have in their mouth filth such that would poison your blood with bacteria like the Kimodo dragons?

[GoreBag]

Well, the dragons that breathe fire wouldn't be host to such bacteria..

[AntiochusIII]

Well, the dragons that breathe fire wouldn't be host to such bacteria..

May be they have some archaebacteria in there. Which is, of course, not in the least comforting to the bitten, if they're alive after being bit by a dragon...

[GoreBag]

Well, being heated to 118 Celsius or so for a few minutes kills most things. After a prolonged battle, I don't think much disease would be left in that mouth. I wonder what a dragon's teeth would be made of, though...

[LeftEyeNine]

May their spit or something full of fatal bacteria was illustrated and imagined as a fatal burst of fire. You know fire has somehow had symbolic connection with disease that caused fever..

[Kraxis]

Come to think of it... I really dislike the Praying Mantis, it just gives me the shudders, and at the same time it is so fascinating and interesting.

I can't imagine anything more scary than a 2 meter tall Praying Mantis.
It has that quite humanoid behaviour and looks (two manipulating arms, walking upright, head on a neck with good stereoscopic sight), and yet it is so different... SCARY!!!!!! If I found one in my home, one of the big ones I would never come close to it, I would fear it catching a finger or something.

Butthe worst has to be the way it feeds. Eating the pray alive, not like most other insects, just plain eating them. Nasty... At least it has good tablemanners.

[nokhor]

what is that insect that drops its larvae into a host and the larva eats the host from the inside out as it incubates?

that thing is freaky and i assume the genesis for the alien in Alien the movie.

[Lemur]

Ha! I thought you said cows.

I thought that too. And I can sort of see it -- cows in the treetops, well, they wouldn't even have to be there, would they? Cows have their own menace ...

[GoreBag]

what is that insect that drops its larvae into a host and the larva eats the host from the inside out as it incubates?

that thing is freaky and i assume the genesis for the alien in Alien the movie.

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show....eywords=maggot

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show....&Keywords=neck

Oh yeah. How could I forget?

Mind you, there's some language going on in the background of these clips.

[Azi Tohak]

"I hate spiders. I hate spiders. I hate spiders."

Come on now, I'm sure everyone knows the words!

Anyway, I think the Wolf is a good guess, but I think it varies according to the culture. When I was little I was terrified of Aliens (I'll refrain from an immigration joke). But now... just spiders.

Azi

[RabidGibbon]

Originally posted by Lemurmania

Cows have their own menace

You better believe it. I remember a couple of cases of cow's killing people in the UK not so long ago, but the only linkage I could find was of foreign cows killing people.

Clicking Time

[master of the puppets]

funny as it may sound a giant chicken would be lethal, they move like raptors and run astonishingly fast. you give them teeeth and some guts and they could do damage. my family used to have this one rooster that aytttacked my sister and brother, honestly attack charge them leap into the air and try to claw there eyes out but ui got him good oh yes i got him.

[Red Harvest]

funny as it may sound a giant chicken would be lethal, they move like raptors and run astonishingly fast. you give them teeeth and some guts and they could do damage. my family used to have this one rooster that aytttacked my sister and brother, honestly attack charge them leap into the air and try to claw there eyes out but ui got him good oh yes i got him.

Yes, anyone who has been around chickens as a small child has probably seen this. The main problem is that little kids are afraid of them. If they would charge the bird it would run. The birds don't have much mass, and they have weak bones. They are not going to get into a real tangle with a dense boned more massive mammal. Still, I always had to run to the rescue of my little brother, since he always ran. If you chase the rooster long enough it will ball up and go into a coma like state...

Dogs were a concern when distance running down country dirt roads, they were very aggressive. I picked up rocks and gravel along the way. (I'm a crack shot with a rock while running--I've killed rabbits and bullfrogs this way.) Yelp...yelp...yelp. If they got too close I would charge them. After running a route a few times I noticed the dogs would run up and bark, but stay discreetly out of my accurate range.

[LeftEyeNine]

Well my friend had a rooster which was a lot taller than an infant. He said that the guy (?!!) was really furious, he could easily attack at humans. Well, you should have seen that.

[The Stranger]

i'm the scariest wanna bet

[Reverend Joe]

The Chupacabra. Probably not real, but if it is...

Do a little reading on the Chupacabra- it'll scare the **** out of you.

[yesdachi]

I think we have pretty much hit all the major scary animals. Thanks everyone.
As long as we keep it in the mood of the monastery I would not be opposed to switching gears and listing a few of the scariest whatever’s we can think of.

I would happily start and list the Witch, particularly popular as a villain in stories, folk tales and steak burnings. Although they don’t scare me too much (I have always been good with the ugly wart covered ladies ) they sure seem to have made an impact in history.

This guy, Tamim Ansary, describes and rates 9 monsters. A fun read.
http://encarta.msn.com/column_ninesc..._Scariest.html

[nokhor]

a bug that slowly eats the tongue of a fish and becomes a tongue imposter for the fish. just ran into this today. i have no idea of its veracity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/4209004.stm

http://www.bogleech.com/bio-para.html

[Byzantine Prince]

I'de like to see a giant chicken or a praying mantis cause a nuclear holocaust. ;laugh4:

Seriously Man has always been his own worse fear, even within himself.

[Reverend Joe]

a bug that slowly eats the tongue of a fish and becomes a tongue imposter for the fish. just ran into this today. i have no idea of its veracity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/4209004.stm

http://www.bogleech.com/bio-para.html

That parasite stuff wasn't so much scary as disturbing. So apparently there may be a hollow chamber beneath my skin, with 3-inch larvae in it. Though I suppose I would feel that.

[Yawning Angel]

There's your problem...the flag is supposed to be red and white! Does Australia use a different color? Or is this an international yachting thing?

Sorry for the slight OT, as far as I know Americans (and possibly others) use the 'diver down' flag (a little background) while the British use the International Code Flag 'A' for diving (code flags).

Back on topic, when diving I find the highly venemous Stonefish that do excellent impressions of rocks that would be good to put your hands on quite worrying

[Kraxis]

I'de like to see a giant chicken or a praying mantis cause a nuclear holocaust. ;laugh4:

Seriously Man has always been his own worse fear, even within himself.

Sure but do you get a horrifying dread in your gut whenever you see a human? Not me.
Humans are only scary in specific cases, cases that are often not normal.

The animals we hae mentioned are scary as they are always. That is a pretty big difference. Just because we have the capacity to destroy everything doesn't make us scary to ourselves.

Btw, I wonder now why people haven't mentioned Leeches. A lot of people are quite scared of them and it has been kept alive by movies and old tales, now that we seldomly see them in the wild (well if you are European that is).

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Maybe elephants? In combat it would probably be, but other than that not really. Lions?

[VAE VICTUS]

simple...US.MAN IS THE SCARIEST ANIMAL.in my book anyway. except we dont eat our young...we hit them with rocks.