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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogebam Here. Ask your friends which animal

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Speaker 1: they fear the most, and you'll probably get a myriad

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Speaker 1: of answers. Sharks, snakes, bears, spiders, bees, and take your pick.

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Speaker 1: A sharp teeth, deadly claws, venom, and sheer, size and

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Speaker 1: speed make us few many creatures as a menace. But

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Speaker 1: are the animals we perceive as fearful really the most treacherous?

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Speaker 1: Not always, Sometimes danger lurks in strange packages. Take, for example,

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Speaker 1: the adorable, bright and tiny poison dart frog, found mostly

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Speaker 1: in tropical forests, This little amphibian actually oozes poison from

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Speaker 1: its back. The toxin from one frog could kill ten humans.

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Speaker 1: And when you're taking a dip in the ocean, everything

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Speaker 1: from jaws to sensationalized media accounts may have you worried

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Speaker 1: about shark attacks, but animals like jellyfish are actually more concerning.

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Speaker 1: Take the ethereal looking Australian box jellyfish. Each of its

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Speaker 1: sixty tentacles, which can grow to fifteen feet that's four

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Speaker 1: and a half meters long, contains enough toxins to kill

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Speaker 1: sixty humans. And take the hefty hippopotamus, which eats mostly

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Speaker 1: plants and looks cute and cuddly, but don't let that

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Speaker 1: fool you. This giant animal is quite aggressive and widely

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Speaker 1: considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. I

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Speaker 1: don't always recommend watching movie Congo, but there is a

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Speaker 1: hippo attack sequence in there that may be the most

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Speaker 1: accurate part of that film. Other frightening creatures do live

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Speaker 1: up to their hype, however. For example, the saltwater crocodile,

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Speaker 1: which is found in India, Asia and Australia, is a

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Speaker 1: serious predator. It'll attack just about anything, including you, and

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Speaker 1: back in Africa, the lion is just as they say,

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Speaker 1: incredibly fast and brawny, with tearing teeth and claws. It

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Speaker 1: feeds on weaker mammals and will attack humans if its

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Speaker 1: regular food sources are scarce. Also legitimately fearsome is the

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Speaker 1: polar bear found in the Arctic. It's dangerous to humans

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Speaker 1: largely because it's not naturally afraid of us, unlike most

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Speaker 1: other animals, and we are certainly no match for its

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Speaker 1: burly strength, razor claws and teeth. And let's not forget

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Speaker 1: the king cobra, found in India, China, and other parts

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Speaker 1: of Asia. It isn't the most venomous snake in the world.

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Speaker 1: That honor goes to the inland typeon but the cobra's

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Speaker 1: extremely concentrated venomous bite can kill even an elephant. All

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Speaker 1: of these animals kill hundreds of people every year, but

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Speaker 1: one animal wins by a landslide in total human carnage.

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Speaker 1: Its bite results in the depths of a million people

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Speaker 1: a year. The most deadly animal in the world is

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Speaker 1: the mosquito. The majority of the deaths that causes are

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Speaker 1: due to malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that between

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Speaker 1: three hundred and five hundred million cases of malaria occur

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Speaker 1: every year, and that a child dies from malaria every

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Speaker 1: thirty seconds. It's not the mosquito itself that causes the disease,

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Speaker 1: but rather a parasite that the mosquito carries. Not all

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Speaker 1: mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite, only females of the Anopolies genus,

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Speaker 1: which do exist all over the world with the exception

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Speaker 1: of Antarctica. The mosquito transmitts malaria after biting an infected

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Speaker 1: person and then passes along the parasite to the next

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Speaker 1: person it bites. Malaria is a blood transmitted disease, which

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Speaker 1: means you can't contract it from casual contact with another

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Speaker 1: person because it's transmitted through the blood. You can contract

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Speaker 1: it from a contaminated transfusion or needle, but mosquitoes are

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Speaker 1: primarily to blame for its spread. Malaria is no longer

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Speaker 1: considered a public health issue here in the United States.

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Speaker 1: The disease virtually disappeared in the nineteen fifties when the

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Speaker 1: National Malaria Eradication Program AM implemented a d d T

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Speaker 1: that's a synthetic pesticide program to control the mosquito population. However,

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Speaker 1: this program saw limited success in the rest of the world.

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Speaker 1: Nations with a temperate climate and seasonal mosquito issues were

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Speaker 1: able to eradicate malaria, but in other countries, resistance to

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Speaker 1: insecticides and drugs, cuts and funding, and the lack of

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Speaker 1: participation made long term eradication efforts impossible. The United States

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Speaker 1: does still report a few hundred cases of malaria per year,

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Speaker 1: most occurring in travelers returning from areas where it's still

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Speaker 1: a problem. Anti malarial drugs do exist, but there's currently

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Speaker 1: no malaria vaccine affected countries now turned to malaria control

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Speaker 1: rather than eradication. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Speaker 1: refers to these activities as vector control. A vector control

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Speaker 1: means decreasing contact between humans and disease carriers, whatever they

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Speaker 1: might be, on an area by area basis. The a

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Speaker 1: in this case is to cut down on the mosquito

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Speaker 1: parasite population using insecticide treated nets that drape over people's beds,

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Speaker 1: plus indoor spraying and larval control. Insecticide treated bednets in

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Speaker 1: particular can cut mortality rates by the purpose of this

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Speaker 1: piece isn't to scare you about mosquitoes. There's no need

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Speaker 1: to transfer your paranoia to them, but rather to put

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Speaker 1: things more into perspective. Most sharks, snakes, spiders, and other

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Speaker 1: horror flick animals actively avoid humans, and science can help

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Speaker 1: us prevent deaths from the things like mosquitoes that do

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Speaker 1: seek us out. Today's episode is based on the article

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Speaker 1: which animals kill the most people in the wild on

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Speaker 1: house toffworks dot Com, written by Deborah Rnka. Brainstuff is

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Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with hous toff works

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Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts,

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Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts

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