Horses and cows kill the most humans every year in Australia It really is no joke.
Cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to people and domestic animals. The 2007 edition of the Guinness World Records lists the cassowary as the world's most dangerous bird.
In terms of the number of humans killed every year, mosquitos by far hold the record, being responsible for between 725,000 and 1,000,000 deaths annually.
Key statistics
The mortality rate remained low in 2021 (507.2 per 100,000 people). Ischaemic heart disease was the leading cause of death. Suicide was the 15th leading cause of death.
3144 Australians died by suicide in 2021, which represents an age-standardised suicide death rate of 12.0 per 100,000 people. The number of suicides has increased slightly, with 5 more deaths in 2021 (compared with 3139 deaths in 2020).
Tobacco smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia.
Mosquitos are by far the deadliest creature in the world when it comes to annual human deaths, causing around one million deaths per year, compared to 100,000 deaths from snakes and 250 from lions. Perhaps surpringly, dogs are the third deadliest animal to humans.
Ungainly as it is, the hippopotamus is the world's deadliest large land mammal, killing an estimated 500 people per year in Africa. Hippos are aggressive creatures, and they have very sharp teeth. And you would not want to get stuck under one; at up to 2,750kg they can crush a human to death.
It is only the second death in 100 years caused by a kangaroo in Australia. The last was in 1936, when a 38-year-old New South Wales man, William Cruickshank, reportedly died from head injuries after trying to save his dogs from a kangaroo.
On average, two people die each year on Australia's roads after an accident with a kangaroo.
The Dingo is Australia's largest terrestrial carnivore, though it occasionally eats plants and fruits. They're opportunistic hunters, but will also scavenge food. The bulk of their diet is made up of meat: they eat kangaroos, wallabies, feral pigs, wombats, small mammals (rabbits, rodents), birds and lizards.
Crocodiles. Crocodile attacks on people are common in places where crocodiles are native. The saltwater and Nile crocodiles are responsible for more attacks and more deaths than any other wild predator that attacks humans for food.
Australia's apex predator, the dingo (Canis dingo) influences the abundance and behaviour of herbivorous prey and mesopredators in arid ecosystems. The dingoes' ecological role is uncertain in more productive forested environments of eastern Australia.
According to Kristofer Helgen, a biologist and chief scientist at the Australian Museum, the continent lays claim to so many deadly creatures partially because of continental drift.
There are 13 species of crocodiles (from the order Crocodilia), all of which can be found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. Around 1,000 people are killed each year at the jaws of opportunistic crocodiles.
5. Freshwater snails: 20,000+ deaths a year. The freshwater snail carries parasitic worms that infect people with a disease called schistosomiasis that can cause intense abdominal pain and blood in the stool or urine, depending on the area that's affected.
And once that paralysis hits your diaphragm and rib muscles, you only have a few minutes before you suffocate to death. No, the fastest-acting venom on Earth belongs to the Australian Box Jellyfish or sea wasp. It's not the most potent venom out there. But encounter one of these guys and you'll be dead in 15 minutes.
2. Mosquito. Clocking in at just three millimeters at their smallest, the common mosquito, even tinier than the tsetse fly, ranks as the second most dangerous animal in the world.
Most people would feel that a peaceful, painless death would be considered good. A bad death would be one in which violence, severe pain, torture, dying alone, being kept alive against your wishes, loss of dignity, and being unable to let your wishes be known.
Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.
Heart disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. This is the case in the U.S. and worldwide. More than half of all people who die due to heart disease are men. Medical professionals use the term heart disease to describe several conditions.
After analyzing more than a million attempted suicides with poison—the most frequent method used in the United States—researchers have found that Sunday and Monday are the peak days for adults to undertake the act.