Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogebam Here. Ask your friends which animal
Speaker 1: they fear the most, and you'll probably get a myriad
Speaker 1: of answers. Sharks, snakes, bears, spiders, bees, and take your pick.
Speaker 1: A sharp teeth, deadly claws, venom, and sheer, size and
Speaker 1: speed make us few many creatures as a menace. But
Speaker 1: are the animals we perceive as fearful really the most treacherous?
Speaker 1: Not always, Sometimes danger lurks in strange packages. Take, for example,
Speaker 1: the adorable, bright and tiny poison dart frog, found mostly
Speaker 1: in tropical forests, This little amphibian actually oozes poison from
Speaker 1: its back. The toxin from one frog could kill ten humans.
Speaker 1: And when you're taking a dip in the ocean, everything
Speaker 1: from jaws to sensationalized media accounts may have you worried
Speaker 1: about shark attacks, but animals like jellyfish are actually more concerning.
Speaker 1: Take the ethereal looking Australian box jellyfish. Each of its
Speaker 1: sixty tentacles, which can grow to fifteen feet that's four
Speaker 1: and a half meters long, contains enough toxins to kill
Speaker 1: sixty humans. And take the hefty hippopotamus, which eats mostly
Speaker 1: plants and looks cute and cuddly, but don't let that
Speaker 1: fool you. This giant animal is quite aggressive and widely
Speaker 1: considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. I
Speaker 1: don't always recommend watching movie Congo, but there is a
Speaker 1: hippo attack sequence in there that may be the most
Speaker 1: accurate part of that film. Other frightening creatures do live
Speaker 1: up to their hype, however. For example, the saltwater crocodile,
Speaker 1: which is found in India, Asia and Australia, is a
Speaker 1: serious predator. It'll attack just about anything, including you, and
Speaker 1: back in Africa, the lion is just as they say,
Speaker 1: incredibly fast and brawny, with tearing teeth and claws. It
Speaker 1: feeds on weaker mammals and will attack humans if its
Speaker 1: regular food sources are scarce. Also legitimately fearsome is the
Speaker 1: polar bear found in the Arctic. It's dangerous to humans
Speaker 1: largely because it's not naturally afraid of us, unlike most
Speaker 1: other animals, and we are certainly no match for its
Speaker 1: burly strength, razor claws and teeth. And let's not forget
Speaker 1: the king cobra, found in India, China, and other parts
Speaker 1: of Asia. It isn't the most venomous snake in the world.
Speaker 1: That honor goes to the inland typeon but the cobra's
Speaker 1: extremely concentrated venomous bite can kill even an elephant. All
Speaker 1: of these animals kill hundreds of people every year, but
Speaker 1: one animal wins by a landslide in total human carnage.
Speaker 1: Its bite results in the depths of a million people
Speaker 1: a year. The most deadly animal in the world is
Speaker 1: the mosquito. The majority of the deaths that causes are
Speaker 1: due to malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that between
Speaker 1: three hundred and five hundred million cases of malaria occur
Speaker 1: every year, and that a child dies from malaria every
Speaker 1: thirty seconds. It's not the mosquito itself that causes the disease,
Speaker 1: but rather a parasite that the mosquito carries. Not all
Speaker 1: mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite, only females of the Anopolies genus,
Speaker 1: which do exist all over the world with the exception
Speaker 1: of Antarctica. The mosquito transmitts malaria after biting an infected
Speaker 1: person and then passes along the parasite to the next
Speaker 1: person it bites. Malaria is a blood transmitted disease, which
Speaker 1: means you can't contract it from casual contact with another
Speaker 1: person because it's transmitted through the blood. You can contract
Speaker 1: it from a contaminated transfusion or needle, but mosquitoes are
Speaker 1: primarily to blame for its spread. Malaria is no longer
Speaker 1: considered a public health issue here in the United States.
Speaker 1: The disease virtually disappeared in the nineteen fifties when the
Speaker 1: National Malaria Eradication Program AM implemented a d d T
Speaker 1: that's a synthetic pesticide program to control the mosquito population. However,
Speaker 1: this program saw limited success in the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: Nations with a temperate climate and seasonal mosquito issues were
Speaker 1: able to eradicate malaria, but in other countries, resistance to
Speaker 1: insecticides and drugs, cuts and funding, and the lack of
Speaker 1: participation made long term eradication efforts impossible. The United States
Speaker 1: does still report a few hundred cases of malaria per year,
Speaker 1: most occurring in travelers returning from areas where it's still
Speaker 1: a problem. Anti malarial drugs do exist, but there's currently
Speaker 1: no malaria vaccine affected countries now turned to malaria control
Speaker 1: rather than eradication. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Speaker 1: refers to these activities as vector control. A vector control
Speaker 1: means decreasing contact between humans and disease carriers, whatever they
Speaker 1: might be, on an area by area basis. The a
Speaker 1: in this case is to cut down on the mosquito
Speaker 1: parasite population using insecticide treated nets that drape over people's beds,
Speaker 1: plus indoor spraying and larval control. Insecticide treated bednets in
Speaker 1: particular can cut mortality rates by the purpose of this
Speaker 1: piece isn't to scare you about mosquitoes. There's no need
Speaker 1: to transfer your paranoia to them, but rather to put
Speaker 1: things more into perspective. Most sharks, snakes, spiders, and other
Speaker 1: horror flick animals actively avoid humans, and science can help
Speaker 1: us prevent deaths from the things like mosquitoes that do
Speaker 1: seek us out. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: which animals kill the most people in the wild on
Speaker 1: house toffworks dot Com, written by Deborah Rnka. Brainstuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with hous toff works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts,
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