The Animal Kingdom’s Most Dangerous Bites | World’s Deadliest Compilation | Nat Geo Animals

(snarls) When it comes to killer weapons, these predators are armed to the teeth. From hungry Goliaths to tiny terrors, razor-sharp fangs and bone-crushing jaws take a bite out of the competition. (yipping) (music) When you're this big, it's one bite, and then goodnight. A typical day in the life of a hippo may not be what you'd expect. For a giant that weighs as much as a car, they are surprisingly peaceful. (grunting) They're vegetarians. They like to play in the mud. They kindly coexist with birds. And they spend about 16 hours of every day in the water, most of it just chilling. A watering hole on the African savanna is a serene hippo oasis, unless something or someone sets him off. Males are dangerously territorial, especially when it comes to defending a watering hole. In Zambia, this male hippo is enjoying a quiet swim when an uninvited guest appears to challenge his domain. Detecting the threat, this 8,000-pound gentle giant unleashes his jaws of hell. (bellowing) Able to open their mouths up to 150 degrees, a hippo has one of the most powerful bites of any land mammal. So it's safe to say, what hippo smashes, stays smashed. Bottom line, keep the peace. Don't mess with a hippo. Big cats are proven killers, and most use the same technique: a bite to the throat. It can be a slow and messy affair. Much too slow for one cat. The jaguar doesn't go for the throat. It goes for the brain, delivering instant death with just one power-packed bite. The secret to the jaguar's head-splitting talent is its massive canines, long and sharp enough to pierce the prey's brain case and turn out the lights in a heartbeat. Found silently stalking through Central and South America, jaguars measure up to eight feet from nose to tail, and weigh up to 250 pounds. (growl) They have no fear of water, and are powerful enough to crack a turtle shell. But despite their imposing bulk, they're masters of the stealthy speed kill. The jaguar's patterned coat blends into the shadows of the jungle as it prepares to strike. Today, it eyes the thick skull of the peccary. (squealing) Then, with a quick bite... (crunch) ...it's game over. Their cousins in Africa and Asia may get all the fame, but when it comes to the art of the death chomp, jaguars are the real kings of the jungle. (growling) It's an apex predator, with a mouth of epic proportions. The saltwater crocodile, owner of the strongest bite on Earth! The croc's jaws can crush down with 3,700 pounds of force. With that power, it can make a meal out of anything it wants: sea turtles, boars, even sharks! Ranging from Southern Asia to Australia, these notorious ambush killers are the largest crocodiles in the world, easily growing to 20 feet in length. In fact, the monster memorialized by this statue was reported to be over 28 feet long! That's big enough to make mincemeat of a one-ton water buffalo. Salties are long-distance swimmers. When driven by the need to feed, they'll migrate hundreds of miles out into open ocean. They're usually solitary, but one thing that can bring them together: food. And sometimes that unending group hunger leads to some pretty gruesome meals, like human beings! In 1945, during the Battle of Ramree Island, over 1,000 Japanese troops fled into a swamp. (gunfire) Allied forces surrounded them, but the Japanese refused to surrender. Saltwater crocodiles did the rest. As few as 20 Japanese soldiers survived the onslaught. There's stiff competition for the title of world's most voracious reptile. But that's just the kind of challenge the saltwater crocodile can sink its teeth into. Large and in charge. That's the trademark of this Arctic king. This solitary emperor holds the crown for the world's largest land carnivore. His kingdom is the vast Arctic north, a remote and harsh region where every day is an epic struggle for existence. To survive, the polar bear must be skilled in both smarts and strategy. He is equipped with perhaps nature's most effective fur coat, with an inner layer that retains heat and an outer layer that repels water and ice. It also allows this top predator to travel thousands of miles while reflecting light and blending into its surroundings. But even a king has his issues. His world is made of ice, so it's constantly shifting or melting. And that's where his paws come into play. They're broad so he can keep his balance, covered in fur, and equipped with claws to grip the ice. And when the ice ends, the paws are partially webbed, so they can double as oars while he swims, over 60 miles at a time. But to do so, he must consume over four pounds of fat daily. And he's got powerful jaws to seal the deal. Thinking he's safe, this seal pops his head up for some air. Little does he know, a polar bear is taking inventory. The end result? A dead seal, and a bloody, but sated king. They stalk, crawl, and wait. Stealth assassins know the power of patience. White flowers: fragrant symbols of innocence. What could possibly be deadly about these bountiful blossoms? There she is, the crab spider, and she's waging a war of delicate destruction. While other spiders spin a web to hunt, disguise and surprise is this deadly predator's MO. She hides in plain sight, waiting, mobilizing. The ambush is laser precise, a quick grab with the legs, then the spider bites, paralyzes, and sucks the butterfly dry. But not every flower is white. So when some crab spiders can't find a white flower to help them hunt, they adjust. It takes a few days, but a girl's gotta eat. Time to go undercover. Two cell layers play an important role. When the upper layer is clear, the spider appears white. But when she sees a yellow flower, she creates a yellow pigment in the upper layer. The lower layer, acting as a mirror, reflects light through the yellow pigment making her appear yellow. Now hidden, this color-shifting transformer just has to sit and wait for her prey to come. (buzzing) Why weave a web when you can simply change your color? On the African plains, it's already hard enough to avoid getting killed by the big cats. They're fast, hungry and aggressive. But this guy takes hunting to the next level. He attacks from above. Leopards are experts of the ambush attack, climbing a tree and camouflaging themselves within the foliage. In fact, for the leopard, the tree is his castle. It's where he sleeps. It's where he gets his exercise. And it's where he sits silently scoping for prey. Using his curved ears to capture five times more sound waves than a human, they alert him to even the smallest sounds. (grunt) And this leopard hears something... an impala. (purring) Quiet and calculating, his soft paws muffle his movements. And really, it's not quite fair, because this guy has no idea he's supposed to look up. The kill comes with a strong bite to the neck. To protect his meal, the leopard drags the impala back to his tree perch... ...where he will feast on it for days. One of Brazil's wild residents is legendary for its bizarre feeding habits. A creature whose very name sends a shiver down the spine. The vampire bat. The only mammal on Earth to dine exclusively on blood. It doesn't land directly on its victim, but touches down nearby and silently creeps towards it. The tiny vampire uses heat sensors on its nose to zero in on where warm blood is close to the skin's surface. Unlike Hollywood vampires, the bats don't suck up blood through hollow fangs. They use razor-sharp canine teeth to slice open the skin, then lap up the flowing blood with their tongues. A powerful anticoagulant keeps it flowing until the vampire is full. A 2-ounce bat can double their weight in one bloody meal. Vampire bats are the only bat on Earth that can take off directly from the ground. Back in its lair, a surprising side of these nightmarish animals is revealed. They share their gory meals with family and friends. Its bite may not kill, but the vampire bat is always out for blood. Many top hunters look the part, but it's hard to picture some as ruthless killers. On land, the leopard seal's looks are deceiving. In the water, this is one of the Antarctic's deadliest hunters. But on the beach, an adult seal can barely roll over, let alone pose a serious threat. For the penguins, this leopard seal is little more than a speed bump on their path to the water... albeit a large speed bump, at 10 feet and 1,000 pounds. But when the seal drops into the water, it's transformed. With a streamlined body and powerful flippers, it can reach speeds of 14 miles per hour, and turn on a dime. You might not even notice its most terrifying feature until it opens its mouth: sharp, one-inch canines. The seals' tactics are pretty simple. Swim along the edge of a penguin colony, staying underwater and out of sight. And there's nothing complicated about the kill, either. It grabs a penguin by the feet and repeatedly beats it against the surface. The seal literally smashes it to pieces. Then it can eat the flesh and the fatty parts, letting the rest float away. Leopard seals are the Antarctic's version of Jaws with an appetite to match. Blink, and you'll miss it. Speed eaters bring new meaning to the phrase 'grab a quick bite.' In the swamps and rivers of the American South, there's a creature that sits very still, appearing to live its life at a very, very slow pace. But don't be fooled. It's got hair-trigger jaws. The alligator snapping turtle has a taste for food so fresh, even the fish don't know they're dead yet. Growing up to a colossal 220 pounds, a snapper will spend almost its whole life underwater, surfacing only to breath every 40 to 50 minutes. At night, it'll root around in the muck, searching for plants and carrion to gnaw on. But during the day, it's all about the ambush. Alligator snappers even have a built-in lure, a small bit of flesh that looks like a wiggling worm in its mouth. The fish, oblivious to the big, motionless monster, find the bait irresistible. And in an instant, hooked jaws either catch the prey whole, or skewer it. So it's easy to see why researchers and fishermen have learned to respect these jaws. Because with a bite this fast, catching a meal is a snap. Cheetah, peregrine falcon-- these are some of the fastest-moving animals on Earth. But there's a creature with no legs or wings that is still lightning fast, in more ways than one: the black mamba. Sneaky, slithering, and reaching up to 14 feet, the mamba is quick, able to travel more than 12 miles per hour, making him the fastest venomous snake in Africa. But the mamba mostly uses that speed to protect itself from a threat. To perform his lethal kills, he relies on a completely different type of speed. (hiss) (squeaking) It starts with his quick-moving tongue, a rapid little appendage which he flicks to detect the scent of prey. When he's in range, he stops and waits for the rat with poor vision to mistakenly come to him. And that's when another speedy skill enters the equation: his strike. Which happens in a split second. But this warrior's real lethal power comes from something his victims can't even see: his swift-acting venom. This neurotoxin rapidly paralyzes and kills. Humans can die in 20 minutes. Sweet baby chicks, much, much faster. (chirping) Anything that wants to take on a black mamba must either have a death wish, or be really, really fast. Meet the mongoose, a mammal from the family Herpestidae that makes the mamba look like a chump. (hissing) The darting mongoose dodges every one of the serpent's strikes. And when the moment is perfect, it scores the kill in less than two seconds. Ranging from Africa to southern Asia, mongooses will feed on just about any meat. But it's a taste for snake that makes them notorious. A cobra nest. Delicious. Of course, the grown-ups are the ones that pose a challenge. India. Home of a dreaded killer. The spectacled cobra. They're highly venomous and blindingly quick. Just the way the Indian gray mongoose likes them. Cobra venom is ineffective on mongooses, but a bite could still create a lethal infection. Trapped, the snake goes on the offensive. The furry speed demon has perfect reflexes, matching the hooded cobra's every move. Then, with a fatal bite, the dance is over. And just to make sure... Dinner is served. We've seen how quickly some members of the animal kingdom make their kills. But the plant kingdom has a fast-killing carnivore of its own. Enter the Venus flytrap. Actually, don't enter it, because you'll probably never get out. It may seem like a real-life swamp monster, but it's actually a plant indigenous to North America, where poor soil conditions have stirred its carnivorous cravings. When an insect triggers the tiny hairs in a flytrap's maw, it snaps shut in a startling tenth of a second. Struggling to escape only tightens the trap, where enzymes digest the imprisoned prey over the next 10 days. And while bugs may be the usual quarry, Venus flytraps have been known to go for larger game. Usually, their eyes are bigger than their stomachs. But sometimes, the eyes have it. So watch out, animal kingdom. split-second killers, the high-velocity Venus flytrap is nipping at your heels. This creature sees the world differently. To him, this forest is not a realm of give and take. No compromise. No bargaining. The chameleon is like a terminator of the reptile kingdom. And woe be to any insect that gets in its way. As he hunts, he crawls and creeps, careful not to disturb any unsuspecting prey. As he continues, he changes color, adjusting to the temperature and communicating his mood. Capable of seeing up to 180 degrees in any direction, he doesn't miss a beat... or a cricket. He doesn't need to be close. In fact, it's better if he's not. And then, the chameleon unleashes a tongue from hell. It shoots out, and in mere milliseconds, doubles the length of his body. Accelerating from 0 to 20 feet per second, the chameleon annihilates prey. Hasta la vista, insects. Lurking in the depths of this Irish lake is a creature notorious for its super-fast death chomp. A real-life water monster, the northern pike. It's named for its resemblance to the deadly medieval weapon, because this is one deadly fish. The pike hunts with shocking speed. And a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, which keep it at the top of the freshwater food chain. In areas where it's an invasive species, the northern pike eats so much, it tends to decimate the ecosystem. But it doesn't just feed on fish. This gilled gobbler likes surf... and turf. Before this vole knows what's what... It's fish food. But the pike's hunger doesn't end there. It's even developed a taste for tender, young waterfowl. This little duckling never stood a chance, taken down with just one bite. But what really gives the pike its gluttonous reputation is its habit of stuffing its face. Unlike the piranha, it prefers to swallow prey whole using its highly acidic stomach juices to digest large meals quickly, so it can eat again. But it's a method that can backfire. Pike sometimes bite off more than they can chew, choking to death on their oversized snacks. The northern pike, a fish infamous for its 'see food' diet... ...because it eats just about everything it sees. What's scarier than a mouth full of teeth? Try a mob of hungry mouths headed straight for you. Of all the group hunters on Earth, these are among the biggest. On the African savanna, lions sit at the top of the food chain. Females do most of the hunting, while males rest and protect territory. Lions rely on teamwork to survive. They will take on prey more than twice their size. A full-grown zebra can weigh more than half a ton. One kick from those hooves can break a lion's jaw. Lions are sprinters, not marathoners. They can hit 34 miles an hour, but only for a few seconds. (roar) So they team up, approaching their prey from different angles. Zebras learn to keep their distance, but one zebra is about to violate the first rule of the safari: Always stay with the group. She'll go for the typical deathblow: a bite to the neck, crushing the windpipe... ...while the team surrounds their prey. Of all the world's cats, lions are the only ones that are social, especially at dinnertime. After a kill is made, males always eat first, then the females. What's left goes to the cubs. Often not enough. One reason most will not survive into adulthood. But even Africa's biggest cats need to watch their backs. (hyenas yipping) Someone out there wants to mooch their meal. Few creatures would dare confront a proud lioness. But few creatures are as bold as a pack of hyenas. Like a humble house cat, the lioness takes refuge in a tree, proof that a whole pack trumps one queen. Hyenas are good thieves, but they're also efficient hunters... among the most prolific predators in Africa. Today, on the open plains of the Serengeti, their strategy is simple. Form a semicircle around this herd of wildebeests and pick off stragglers. Lions kill their prey before consuming them, but hyenas eat their prey alive. With powerful jaws and a cast-iron stomach, they can crush and digest bone. The calcium from within the bone turns the hyena's feces white. (bellows) And they're the only carnivore that eats hides. Only hair and horns go to waste. They can eat up to one fifth their weight in one sitting. And they can eat rotten flesh, so leftovers are buried for later. Out here, hyenas are one mob that grazers and carnivores alike don't want to run into. They may look bite-sized, but these ruthless fighters munch above their weight. It has the fastest-moving jaws exerting a force hundreds of times its own body weight. No, not this guy. This guy. The aptly named trap-jaw ant. It's armed with supersized mandibles that lock in ready position at 180 degrees. The instant any of the sensory hairs are touched... Remind you of anything? The jaws snap shut in 130 microseconds. That's an insanely fast 140 miles an hour, the quickest predatory appendages in the animal kingdom. And they reach a peak force 300 times the ant's own body weight. Compare that to the relative bite force of a great white shark, which barely even approaches its own weight. The trap-jaw ant's amazing power and speed is ideal for dealing death quickly, be it to prey, or even other trap-jaw ants. Now imagine if they were as big as them! (scream) (glass shattering) Besides being oversized scissors on six legs, these ants have developed another ingenious use for their jaws. When a trap-jaw ant feels threatened, it can snap its mandibles on the ground or a nearby object, and propel itself out of harm's way. It's like having an ejector seat built onto its face. One that can vault it vertically six times its body length. This trap-jaw ant is being bullied by two of its own kind. But thanks to its giant spring-loaded mandibles, escape is a snap. Five ants are bearing down on this lone wolf. But like a little Evel Knievel, it makes a jaw-dropping backwards jump to freedom. Of course, it's also been known to backfire. This ant tries to take a chunk out of a grubworm, but accidentally launches itself out of biting range. Just a momentary inconvenience for the mighty trap-jaw ant. Speedy escapes and super quick kills. This is one hair-trigger predator we can all be happy isn't nearly as big as its bite. In Africa, instead of quick, another arthropod goes for quantity. African driver ants, feared by humans and every other resident of this tropical forest, because together, they're not a collection of tiny insects, they're a single coordinated super-predator. They overwhelm their victims with sheer numbers, cut them to pieces, and take them back to feed the colony. Scouts fan out ahead, looking for more. Today, they've struck the jackpot: a forest termite mound. A scouting party breaches the fortress walls and infiltrates the tunnels. Then, the army launches a full-scale invasion. Deep inside the mound lives another army dominated by a giant, bloated queen. Huge soldier termites guard the tunnels. They are the first to spot the invaders. They bang their heads on the ground to warn them off, but the ants are relentless. The tunnel guards are overrun. In the queen's chamber, her guards desperately barricade the entrance and attempt to move her huge bulk to safety. The fighting is savage as the two armies go jaw-to-jaw. Casualties mount on both sides. The ants are pushed back, then mount a second wave, pushing deeper into the fortress. Termite reinforcements arrive from below. For once, the driver ant army is outnumbered. Those that are still alive retreat from the underground battlefield, leaving behind the dead and dying. The immense driver ant army has been defeated. Strength in numbers has saved the termite queen and her loyal subjects. Until the next siege of their natural fortress. If you find yourself looking down one of these murderous maws, say goodbye, because it's probably the last thing you'll ever see.