When we think of deadly animals, the biggest and baddest often come to mind. But looking at the data in terms of which ones have caused the most death and devastation, we find that a surprising number of them aren't what we'd expect.
Wolves
Dreaded for their reputation for harming livestock, wolves were once hunted to the point of near extinction in the US. And although stumbling on a pack of wolves, who are the largest members of the dog family, would no doubt be a spine-chilling experience, the data we have on them says that they don't kill nearly as many people as their notoriety would have us believe.
In fact, there are orders of magnitude more wolves killed by humans than the other way around, the primary reason for which is their reputation for being dangerous to livestock. This persecution has unfortunately led to the dramatic reduction in their population.
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