Animal Freak Attacks (Full Episode) | 10 Animals That Can Kill You | Nat Geo Animals

(growl) MAN: Hey! Get back! Hey! MICHELLE: Ah, ah, something's biting me! MAN: You've got a bull ant. (bleep) Is it really stinging the (bleep) out of you? MICHELLE: Uhhh, I don't know. NARRATOR: There are a lot of ways to die out there. (scream) The odds of it being by an animal are very slim. But just in case, here are 10 ways you might die, and perhaps how to avoid it. With Michelle Oakley, Yukon wildlife biologist and vet. MICHELLE: My work can be kind of dangerous, sometimes it's chasing moose around. Bear tracks here. Sometimes it's avoiding bears that are problem animals. And sometimes it's getting bit by a Chihuahua, so it really, I get the whole range of the wild kingdom. Don't let him out! NARRATOR: And Filipe DeAndrade, National Geographic Explorer and wildlife filmmaker. FILIPE: Basically, if it's an animal, I want to point a camera at it. No matter what the conditions, no matter what the environment, no matter what the situation, I am fascinated. NARRATOR: But some of those animals can getcha... MICHELLE: Here are 10 Animals That Will Kill You. FILIPE: 10 Animals That Will Kill You. MICHELLE: Or actually might kill you. FILIPE: Might kill you. (laughter) (barking) NARRATOR: In the United States, domesticated dogs kill up to 40 people a year. Their wild cousins get nowhere close to that, but they can be a threat, especially to children. (screaming) Number 10, the dingo. NEWSCASTER: A father has pulled his baby boy from the grip of a dingo, which dragged the toddler from a campsite on Fraser Island. The 14-month-old's parents were asleep when he was attacked, leaving him with a fractured skull but lucky to have survived. NARRATOR: Dingoes arrived in Australia around 4,000 years ago, an ancient domesticated dog that returned to the wild. MICHELLE: I work with a lot of dogs, probably with more wild canids than the domestic kind. I work with a lot of wolves, a lot of coyotes. And recently when I was in Australia, we were warned about dingoes. About the only things I knew about dingoes in Australia was, "Dingo ate my baby," so, I was like, really? Is that something we have to worry about? NARRATOR: In 2019 on Fraser Island, off the coast of eastern Australia, there were a spate of attacks by dingoes on small children. NEWSCASTER: A six-year-old boy mauled on the same coastline in January. MICHELLE: Fraser Island has a pure line of dingoes, and there, there's a lot more interactions between dingoes and people. The dingoes start associating food with people. REPORTER: Dingoes are an iconic feature of Fraser Island. Visitors are warned to be careful and not feed the wild animals. Apex predators at the top of the food chain. MICHELLE: And then comes the breeding season, the males are really aggressive, and attacks are happening. FILIPE: A dingo, like any wild predator, will become opportunistic, even around human beings. MICHELLE: They're not really big, they're probably around 50 pounds, but they are really wild and really wily. (howling) NARRATOR: Dingoes become most lethal when they team up with others. They establish a hierarchy so that each dog knows his or her role when it comes to the hunt. ♪ ♪ MICHELLE: Dingoes are very similar to wolves in their pack structure. They have the alpha male and female that are leading the group. FILIPE: They're capable of running up to 35 miles an hour. They work together in a pack strategy to hunt down their prey. Even if they're not faster than what they're going after, they rely on endurance, much like African wild dogs. They don't have to be faster than their prey, they just have to be smarter, and when they work together as a team, that's when every member eats. The dingo can even take down a kangaroo, and a kangaroo is no slouch. (growling) NARRATOR: And like many predators, they'll happily hunt prey that put up the least resistance, like farm animals. And a young child can also be vulnerable in the wrong place at the wrong time. "The dingo ate my baby" is something that we should take seriously. 911 OPERATOR: So tell me exactly what's happened. NARRATOR: But are they really out to get us? FILIPE: Absolutely not. 911 CALLER: Agh! I'm coming! FILIPE: Just keep an eye on the baby. FILIPE: Dingoes in Australia remind me of coyotes in North America. A farmer's worst nightmare. However, they are absolutely vital and important predators. NARRATOR: Number 9, the coyote. (howl) The wolf might be the stuff of legend in North America, but it's the coyote that's moving in on our space. FILIPE: When human beings eliminated predators like the gray wolves and like grizzly bears in most of the Americas, it's allowed the coyotes to thrive. Coyotes have been dubbed the most successful predator on Earth, and there is no doubt that they can make it work in any situation. They're happy to be in the wildest of wild places, but they're also quite happy right downtown in a city park. FILIPE: Their ability to always evolve to an ever-changing landscape makes them one of the most formidable predators in the Americas. NARRATOR: And they're not fazed by humans. MICHELLE: Coyotes definitely seem to adapt to the presence of people. And that can lead to a more aggressive or dangerous interaction. NARRATOR: Especially in the big cities. (horn honking) MICHELLE: They're hiding by day, and at night they go out into neighborhoods. They're hunting dogs, cats, and getting into garbage. People have been known to feed these animals in the city, and that's when the problems happen. NARRATOR: Coyotes used to only live on the outskirts of Chicago; now they're gradually moving into the downtown area. NEWSCASTER: The hunt is on for a wild coyote on the loose in Downtown Chicago. Authorities caught one animal last night after two reported attacks, but one is still on the run. NARRATOR: Now around 4,000 coyotes could be living full-time in this city. Even though coyotes can eat anything from shoe leather to garbage, they prefer to hunt, either alone or in small packs. MICHELLE: A coyote is a very small canid. It's probably only maximum 30 or 40 pounds, but they still can be quite dangerous. There have been cases of them going after young children. NARRATOR: Only one small child in California died from such an attack in 1981. But the coywolf of the east is a different beast. MICHELLE: As you move further east in North America, there is a hybrid of both coyotes and wolves. The coyotes there are much bigger. They have wolf DNA in them. And with their size and their ability to adapt and lose fear of people, they're much more likely to take them down. And in fact, a small group of coywolves did take down and kill a woman in Nova Scotia. NARRATOR: In 2009, 19-year-old Taylor Mitchell died of her injuries after being attacked by two coyotes on a hiking trail. FILIPE: Biologically speaking, we have not been on their menu for thousands of years. However, in this case, it's probably animals that got super comfortable with the presence of human beings and decided to take a chance. NARRATOR: Coyote numbers are growing, and in the last 40 years, over 350 coyote attacks have been reported in the U.S. and Canada with two fatalities. FILIPE: When it comes to 10 Animals That Will Kill You, the coyote is capable of taking you out. NARRATOR: But realistically? FILIPE: It's more interested in the pizza that you threw away. 10 Animals That Will Kill You? Try the creatures with eight legs. Spiders. (Maya screams) MICHELLE: What is it!? Spider! (bleep) MAYA: Ohhh, it was on my arm. MICHELLE: That thing is frickin' huge. I do love spiders. It's just when I say spider, I can't quite get my shoulders off my neck. Oooh. FILIPE: I consider myself someone that loves all animals. When it comes to spiders, I swipe left on that situation. MICHELLE: Spiders are amazing. I think they're incredibly weird and wonderful, all those eyes and all those hairy appendages. The building of the web, how they catch their prey and stash them and inject their juices, and then suckle the digested bits of the bug back out. NARRATOR: There are around 45,000 known species of spider, some more scary than others. North and South America have their fair share. FILIPE: I've actually found a Brazilian wandering spider in my bed. This is an animal that is infamous for having one of the most powerful venomous bites in the animal kingdom. It can kill you within two hours of injection, and if you're a male, you die with a painful, vicious erection. I like to keep my distance. NARRATOR: But Australia probably has the most fearsome reputation for spiders. MICHELLE: There are lots of spiders on this planet that are venomous and could even kill you, but one of the deadliest is the Sydney funnel web spider. A bite can kill you within the hour, and it's a nasty, nasty process. NARRATOR: One of the deadliest spiders on the planet can really only be found in one city. MICHELLE: When I first started out working in Australia, I was really worried about spiders, particularly funnel web, because they were having an outbreak of the Sydney funnel web spider right after the bush fires. NARRATOR: They often come out after wet weather, too. NEWSCASTER: Sydney's recent heavy rain was a pest in more ways than one. Highly dangerous funnel web spiders were flooded out of their burrows, and are now being found in large numbers in suburban gardens and garages. So, if you're doing the gardening, wear heavy duty gloves. MICHELLE: Funnel webs, they'll get into your boots. They'll hide in your jacket, and then when you put it on, that's when they're going to get you. NARRATOR: They can even survive in the water of backyard swimming pools by making their own air bubbles. FILIPE: Most spiders have pincers where they come from a horizontal angle; these things, with their fangs, they come vertical, they penetrate, they inject. It's not a situation you want to find yourself in. MICHELLE: Funnel webs actually have fangs that are so strong they can penetrate through a human toenail. Like, could it get any worse? Gross. NARRATOR: But what's their motivation? FILIPE: It's the male that's a jerk; he's the one that wants to come after you, he's the one that wants to bite you. NARRATOR: The female usually stays home in her burrow or funnel-like web. FILIPE: They don't build your typical web that you see from something like a banana spider. They build a cone-shape web, and then they ambush their prey, leaving it nowhere to run, nowhere to escape. NARRATOR: But during summer and fall, the males leave their refuge in search of a mate. And that's when we might run into them closer to our homes. MICHELLE: Definitely not a good way to die, bite by funnel web spider. Oof. NARRATOR: In Australia, there have been 13 recorded deaths by funnel web spider. But there hasn't been one for 40 years. MICHELLE: The good news is with the invention of antivenom in the 1980s, there haven't been any human deaths since then. And of course, spiders don't want to be on us, they don't want to bite us. But if we're gonna mess with them, they're gonna mess with us. FILIPE: So, spiders, I love you, keep doing what you're doing, keep knocking out all the bugs; I just don't want to find you in my bed. MICHELLE: So crawly. NARRATOR: From dagger fangs to dagger claws, some of these predators are at the top of their game. (roar) Big cats are no exception. MICHELLE: Big cats are phenomenal predators. NARRATOR: For its size, the leopard is one of the most powerful big cats. But when humans move into their territory, they often fight back. Number 7, the leopard. FILIPE: The leopard is the ultimate athlete and the cat that has surprised me the most in the wild. They can run, they can leap, they can steal, they can hide, they are cloaked in camouflage. MICHELLE: They only weigh about 150 pounds, but they can drag prey much heavier than themselves up a tree. FILIPE: Something like a lion, even hyenas, will steal from the leopard, so they have to be able to carry that prey up a tree, safeguard it from other would-be predators. NARRATOR: Against such an incredible hunter, humans stand almost no chance. And a car won't necessarily protect you. MAN: Hey! Go away! Away! MAN: He was going for us. NARRATOR: African leopards are one thing, but the leopards in India get a little too close to us for comfort. FILIPE: What the Indian leopard has done that the African leopard has seemingly not been able to do is to thrive alongside human beings. NARRATOR: Mumbai is a city of around 20 million people that butts up against a small national park that's home to as many as 40 leopards. It may be the densest population of these cats anywhere on Earth. But these predators don't know borders. They just want an easy dinner. MICHELLE: What they're doing is moving in to go after dogs and domestic animals, but also in the process, some have become man-eaters. (dog barking) NARRATOR: In the last 20 years, there have been dozens of attacks on people in this area. It's a terrifying thought, a leopard coming after a human, but it's happening. These things weigh almost as much as most people, but they definitely outman them in power, in canines, and they will go for the jugular and hang on. When the two sides clash, humans and the leopards get hurt. MICHELLE: Although there are attacks on people... ...leopards probably have a lot more to be afraid of. NARRATOR: Revenge killings are a key cause of leopard deaths. (crowd shouting) MICHELLE: And of course, they've already lost a lot of their habitat, so it's a difficult way to make a living as a leopard in India. NARRATOR: On rare occasions, a leopard might become a man-eater. But... MICHELLE: Generally, in these city areas, they're going after stray dogs and for much smaller prey. FILIPE: In terms of the leopard is an animal that absolutely can kill you. MICHELLE: But that's not their intention. FILIPE: Whether I'm chasing jaguars, stalking leopards or lions, it's always the ants that get me. NARRATOR: Number 6, ants. Ants dominate wherever they live. FILIPE: Pound for pound, one of the strongest animals on our planet, completely efficient, they work together to dismantle prey. MICHELLE: There's a lot of ants out there, so there's a lot of ant bites out there. They can be really deadly and very painful. FILIPE: They always find a way to sneak up on you and bite you when you least expect it. NARRATOR: In the US, ants kill around 30 people a year. Some are allergic to their stings and go into anaphylactic shock. The pain you feel is in the name. MICHELLE: There's fire ants; the bite feels like fire. FILIPE: I've been covered head to toe by fire ants in the jungles of Costa Rica. When you step in a nest of them, it's already too late. By the time you realize they're there, they've already done the damage. It literally felt like falling inside of a volcano. A pain that I could not describe that welted up and didn't go away for days. MICHELLE: There's bullet ants. (gunshot) It feels like you've been shot. FILIPE: Again in Costa Rica I was leaning over on a tree, stuck my arm out, and I felt something crawling up my arm. This is an ant that is almost an inch long and has a pain beyond unbearable. Something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. And then there's bull ants, and it kind of feels like a combination of fire, bullet and everything. Unfortunately, I had a personal experience with a bull ant in Australia. The saying "ants in your pants," yeah, that was it, except it was a bull ant. Ah, ah, something's biting me! The Australian bull ant is the official record holder for the most dangerous ant in the world. MICHELLE: I know. I was wrestling a kangaroo, and it turned out I was laying in a bull ant nest. It's okay, baby. And I got in the car, there was still one hanging on. First it kind of got me on my back, and then I could feel it moving. I was honestly more terrified that it was a spider, but as it slid down my back, I realized it was biting me in a very tender spot. RAY: Oh, you've got a bull ant. MICHELLE: Uhh, I don't know. On my butt something is stinging me. Ahh, that hurts. And it just feels like pain. RAY: She might have a bull ant in her pants. MICHELLE: Oww! NARRATOR: The bull ant can bite you with its large mandibles, but the pain really comes when it injects venom through a stinger on its rear end. It was incredibly painful. Like the kind of pain where you're just sweating and just waiting for it to stop. It was awful. It took hours for that pain and that burning to go away. NARRATOR: Bull ants earned their name because of their aggression and determination during an attack. However... MICHELLE: The bull ant is not after us, it's not trying to bite us on the butt or get in our pants. What it's trying to do is attack other insects, and so that repeated stinging, what it does is release enzymes into these insects which will destroy their blood cells and kill the animal. NARRATOR: Because it's a relatively big ant, the bull ant injects a lot of poison, and unlike bees, it can deliver multiple stings to a human and not die in the process. MICHELLE: Bull ants can vary in size, but they still pack the same punch. I mean, some are as small as a fingernail, and some are as big as an inch. No matter what their size, they're going to hang on and they're going to sting you repeatedly. NARRATOR: A handful of people have died from the bull ant. MICHELLE: One bull ant sting is awful, it's going to be painful. If you're bit by multiple bull ants, it definitely could set off anaphylaxis, and it could be deadly. NARRATOR: In Australia, the bull ant is the most common species of ant to require a trip to the hospital. are gone from this planet, ants are going to rule the world. NARRATOR: And snakes may still be around, too. Number 5, the Burmese python. Forget venomous snakes; think about being squeezed to death and then swallowed whole by a constrictor snake. In the summer of 2009, a pet python strangled the baby daughter of its owner. FILIPE: A lot of the times that you see people dying from constrictor snakes, it's not in the wild, it's a pet owner getting a little too comfortable with their 20-foot snake. And one day when that snake feels like it's got the opportunity, it turns on you and it takes you out. Florida is ground zero for giant pet snakes. FILIPE: Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, a climate very similar to Florida, which has allowed them to thrive. MICHELLE: There's a lot of interest in owning exotic pets, and there's a lot of responsible owners. But when you get these snakes when they're babies, they're tiny and they're manageable. But a lot of them that can grow to be 7, 10 feet long, and then it's difficult. NARRATOR: Burmese pythons can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 200 pounds. MICHELLE: They can escape or they get out during natural disasters. And that's when they pose a risk to children or to pets or just to the ecosystem, in terms of all the natural wildlife that they can wipe out. FILIPE: They are such formidable predators. They thrive in water, they're nocturnal, so they're active at night. When we're in bed, they're taking over Florida. NEWSCASTER: He discovered the Burmese python had escaped from its terrarium. FILIPE: Florida is the crockpot of bad decisions when it comes to pets. Trust me, as a Floridian, I'm allowed to say this. If you could keep a T-rex as a pet, somebody in Florida would have it chained up in the backyard. different invasive snake species that have been released by pet owners into some of the southern states, and Florida is getting it the worst. NARRATOR: The outcome for wildlife havens like the Everglades has been disastrous. FILIPE: They're responsible for wiping out around 90% of the mammals in the Everglades, and they've replaced alligators as the new apex predators. NARRATOR: Even the alligator is potential lunch for a python. FILIPE: If you think it's a good idea to keep a Burmese python as a pet, Google "Burmese python eats alligator." They can swallow prey much larger than themselves. They can unhinge their jaws, and then they use their teeth to work the prey inside their bodies. And then what happens is that strong stomach acid will start to digest their prey once it's inside of them. MICHELLE: It doesn't take a lot of food to keep them going. They eat once, and they don't need another meal again for months. NARRATOR: And as far as being an animal that will kill you? MICHELLE: Even though we're concerned about Burmese pythons there's been no one killed by a python in this area. It's more the pets, pet pythons that have killed children, and that's what we need to watch out for. FILIPE: I don't think a Burmese python is gonna have the same affection for you that a golden Labrador is. Even if you feed it every single day, it's not enough. These things are predators, these things are meant to be wild creatures. And they're not gonna come sit on your lap looking for a scratch behind the ears. They are eating machines. No matter how much you feed it, they're gonna look for another meal; sometimes you're that next meal. MICHELLE: In the last decade alone, nearly 10 people have been killed by their pet pythons. NARRATOR: And there's another big reptile that you shouldn't mess with. FILIPE: Put some legs on the Burmese python, and you've got the Komodo dragon. NARRATOR: At Number 4 in MICHELLE: Komodo dragons are massive, they're the biggest lizard on Earth. They can be 9 feet long, 200 pounds. They're a type of monitor lizard, but they're giant. FILIPE: They're incredible swimmers, and they can even stand on their two back legs when the males are fighting. (hissing) The Komodo dragon is the ultimate ambush predator. They can bite, rip, shred, and often they'll even gang up with other Komodo dragons to take down something like a buffalo. Working in unison, working as a team, knowing that once they kill that 1,000-pound animal they'll be able to eat for weeks. MICHELLE: And they've definitely killed people on the small islands in Indonesia where they're from. These real-life dragons are terrifying carnivores with multiple tools for destroying their prey. Like feet loaded with massive claws, and a set of 60 teeth that are not only sharp, but... MICHELLE: Serrated and curved backwards, and they do this puncture and pull when they bite. It just kind of rips open, leaves a gaping wound where they leave behind this lethal cocktail of nasty bacteria and horrible venom. FILIPE: So, what comes out of the mouth of a Komodo dragon? A cocktail of death. Between the bacteria and the venom, that is an animal that I would never want to meet the inside of its mouth. NARRATOR: Their saliva contains multiple strains of bacteria. But it's the venom that kills. And this fact was only discovered in 2009. Komodo dragons and other monitor lizards use venom combined with multiple wounds to kill their prey. But unlike venomous snakes, their venom ducts are located between their teeth. FILIPE: The Komodo dragons' venom prevents the blood from clotting, so that the animal bleeds out faster after they bite it. And it even creates muscle fatigue. NARRATOR: They just have to follow their prey around until it dies. MICHELLE: Working as a vet with a Komodo dragon is definitely a lot like working on any other lizard. But then there's this whole other layer of danger. I mean, a bite from a Komodo dragon can be toxic, and then it can turn deadly. So whenever we go into an enclosure to work on a Komodo, we basically have this protocol of what to do if someone gets bit, and taking that protocol with us to the ER if a person has an injury. Even people who have smaller monitor lizards need to be careful. There was a case of a man who had several captive monitor lizards that ended up killing him and eating him. NARRATOR: Ron Huff shared a tiny apartment with 7 large Nile monitor lizards. After failing to show up for work one day, the police were called to check on him. When they finally gained entry into his apartment, they discovered Huff's body slumped up against the door. His pet lizards were feeding on him, and most of his face was missing. It seemed these reptiles had overpowered a man in peak physical condition. But if you don't keep them as pets? MICHELLE: A Komodo dragon definitely could kill you, but luckily the chances of running into one in the wild is pretty slim. Although you wouldn't commonly bump into a Komodo dragon, if you're in you could bump into an American alligator. NARRATOR: In Florida alone, there are over a million alligators. But it wasn't always this way. (grumbling) FILIPE: So a lot of people don't realize, but at one point alligators were actually endangered. We killed so many by hunting, by thinking that they made better boots and purses. We thought we were gonna lose them entirely. So we protected them, they were able to bounce back. MICHELLE: They're expanding their numbers. They're quite common even in suburban and urban areas, and there's a lot of interactions. FILIPE: With 21 million people living in Florida and people vacationing there every single year, we are encroaching on the alligator's natural habitat. They are ending up in pools. They're ending up in homes, in garages, in backyards, on golf courses, and they're becoming unafraid of us. NARRATOR: Lumbering prehistoric reptiles and leisure-seeking humans don't always mix well. And their pets can be prey, too. MICHELLE: There are a lot of instances of alligators attacking not just pets but attacking people. There's been like 400 attacks in the last 50 years, and 16 of those have been fatalities. FILIPE: So, there are some negative interactions and run-ins between human beings and alligators; it does happen. NEWSCASTER: Now to Florida where authorities recovered the body of a woman attacked by an alligator. Their search for clues leading to a grim discovery. NEWSCASTER: An alligator dragged and killed a woman after she tried to rescue her dog from the reptile at a private South Carolina resort. REPORTER: When they got to this lagoon, authorities say a 9-foot alligator came out and lunged for the dog. Cline tried to protect her pet, and that's when the alligator attacked her instead. NARRATOR: While alligator attacks on adult humans are relatively rare, nesting time in the summer can make them more aggressive. FILIPE: The females during nesting season, they will guard that nest with their lives. They will sit next to it, and when people go walking by on a trail, when you hear a huge grunt, something like "brrrrr!" (low growl) Brrrrrr! That is a female gator saying you've come too far, stay away from my crib, I don't want you around. And the big male gators might have an issue with us, too. FILIPE: Male alligators will kill other male alligators during mating season, just for the prime mating spots. So, if you're swimming or if you're kayaking in an area where there is a big bull gator defending his territory, you should be on alert. You should reconsider if that's a body of water that you want to be entering. Because again, that gator will defend what he believes is his territory to the death. MICHELLE: American alligators can be deadly. I mean, with a bite force of 3,000 pounds of pressure, these guys get 14 feet long, they can be 1,000 pounds. NARRATOR: And they have a mouth full of weaponry. MICHELLE: The way they kill is they grab on with their 80 teeth and they don't let go. FILIPE: Alligators are ambush predators. They'll lie very low, keeping just their eyeballs and snout above the surface of the water, waiting for something to come close to it. And then like a steel trap... (clap) ...they shut that jaw. And once that jaw is shut, they go into a death roll. They spin, ripping chunks of meat off of the animal, and then swallowing it. Because alligators can hold their breaths for hours at a time, a lot of the times the way they kill their prey is by drowning it. NARRATOR: And they don't have to eat their prize all at once. FILIPE: If they can't digest it or they can't finish it, they'll swim around with it for days, maybe even up to a week, guarding that animal that they just killed so that they can eat it later. NARRATOR: One person per year on average is killed by an alligator. MICHELLE: Alligators can certainly be deadly, but there are ways to avoid them. You need to be careful where you walk, especially by water's edge, and pick your swimming holes carefully. FILIPE: Don't go swimming in places where there are signs that says "danger, alligator, keep out." From my favorite freshwater predator, to my favorite saltwater predator. NARRATOR: Number 2, the tiger shark. MICHELLE: Great white sharks get a lot of attention for shark attacks. But number two in shark attacks is the tiger shark. NARRATOR: Tiger sharks are known to have killed up to three dozen people worldwide. FILIPE: These things are the great white sharks of the tropics. But the tiger sharks can feed on a much more diverse diet. They are referred to as the garbage disposal of the ocean. They have such an indiscriminate diet; they will eat almost anything. They've been found with trash cans, license plates, all different sorts of living creatures inside of their stomach, and they are nature's vacuum cleaners. MICHELLE: Tiger sharks have some of the strongest stomach acids in the animal kingdom, from beer bottles to explosives, they'll eat it and digest it all. Kaboom! That'd be quite a toot out the other end. NARRATOR: While it may seem to eat anything, this predator does have a favorite prey item. FILIPE: Tiger sharks are known for eating sea turtles. So, in places like Hawaii where sea turtles are protected, there's bound to be more tiger sharks. Tiger sharks have an incredibly powerful bite that can penetrate through the sea turtle's carapace, and they're one of the few sharks that can actually dismantle an animal like a sea turtle. NARRATOR: So, Hawaii is not only a tropical paradise for tourists, it's also turtle heaven for tiger sharks. And that's a bad combination. NARRATOR: The death of a German tourist in 2013 was the first fatality from a shark attack in Hawaii for almost a decade. FILIPE: When I hear about tiger shark accidents, we really have to keep in mind that we as human beings are in their habitat. And then when you think about a person at the surface, splashing around, kicking, creating bubbles, creating a lot of noise; that is a dinner bell to an apex predator like the tiger shark. MICHELLE: Tiger sharks can be quite dangerous to people because they're very unpredictable. They'll keep coming at people and repeatedly attack. They show up when FILIPE: When I'm in the water with these creatures, I never see them until they're about 20 feet behind me, and I'm always on alert. These animals are the ultimate ambush predators in the oceans. MICHELLE: In contrast to great whites, tiger sharks are very unlikely to swim away after attacking, which makes it even more frightening and deadly when there's an encounter. NARRATOR: And how they locate their prey is an incredible skill. With all the electro-sensors around their snout they have the ability to detect even the slightest heart rate or movement. FILIPE: Like the heartbeat of a frightened fish. So, when you're scared and your heart is pumping like this, you're telling that animal that you are on the dinner menu. MICHELLE: The tiger shark is definitely an animal that will kill you. And after the great white, they're the second in line for unprovoked attacks. But when you compare sharks and people, we're so much more deadly, all the sharks we kill. We're no comparison. NARRATOR: There is an animal that kills many more people than sharks. MICHELLE: I'm so afraid. Moo! (moo) NARRATOR: Number 1, the cow. Our number 1 deadly animal we're gonna talk about is the cow. There are a lot of deaths by cattle. FILIPE: I've had to run for my life a few times; not from wolves, not from pumas, not from angry farmers, but running across fields trying to get away from cows. MAN: Oh, now, now. injuries and even fatalities from cattle in America. (man grunts) (bleep) That's what you think. I've kind of been at all ends of cattle injuries. I've been kicked by cattle, I've been nearly gored by cattle, I've seen someone poked in the eye by a cow's horn. We've been in temporary fencing where the cow took off, and started dragging the fencing up against us. Cattle are surprisingly dangerous. Watch that cow doesn't get me. They are upwards of 1,000 to 1,500 pounds, the big bulls can be 2,000, and they will throw their weight around however they see fit. FILIPE: These are large animals. If you catch it on a wrong day, if you catch it in a bad mood, you don't want to be in this animal's way. But what's their beef? MICHELLE: Cattle are prey animals and they're afraid, and so when we corner them or put them through chutes or are trying to work with them, and they don't want to be messed with, they're going to either fight back or just try to get away and hurt us in the process. FILIPE: It's amazing to me that there are not more between cows and people, considering what we do to these animals. Individual cows can have really different personalities. Some are really sweet and are used to being handled, and some can be really aggressive. Usually it's a bull thing, if you're working with any type of bulls, you have to be really careful around the pens. NARRATOR: Bulls are infamous for their temperament to the point where we push that aggression to the edge just for sport and entertainment. But the female bovines have their issues with us as well. MAN: Come on, be nice. Be nice. It's okay--Ahhh! MICHELLE: A mama cow, just like any other mama species, can be very defensive of her young. And they can become really aggressive and try to stomp and get at you. And a lot of times we need to wean the calves and take them, or give them treatments, and the mama cow does not appreciate that, so that leads to some really dangerous interactions. You know, people are always doing dumb things. You know, cows are provoked in various ways. (horse neighs) (crash) We're usually doing rectal exams on cows. Cows have an axe to grind. You can't really blame them, and sometimes they'll turn. Mmm, ow! NARRATOR: According to the CDC, there's an average of 22 deaths caused by cattle per year in the United States. Compare that to one shark attack fatality every two years. MICHELLE: And there's thousands of injuries. I mean, cattle have a reason to come for us, but that's not their intention. They're literally just defending themselves and trying to get away. But it's when we're trying to force them into a situation or work with them in tight quarters that injuries can happen. FILIPE: Should cows be number 1 in 10 Animals That Will Kill You? MICHELLE: Of all the creepy creatures, the spiders, the snakes, the alligators, it's still the cows that we're more likely to be injured from. You know, it's all the interactions between people, farmers, veterinarians, and cattle. And they can really get you. FILIPE: 10 animals that have the capability of killing you but really no interest in coming into contact with you. MICHELLE: I mean, let's face it, these animals aren't out to get us. In most cases, they're just trying to live their lives and get away from us.