The 20 deadliest animals on Earth, ranked (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)
6 fatalities per year
Every summer, we hear about shark attacks in the news, but the entire world only sees an average of six human deaths per year.
According to research compiled by Bill Gates and published on Gates Notes, that makes sharks No. 20 on the list of the 20 animals most deadly to humans.
Shark attacks
This boy's surfboard reads "Whose turn next?" during a 2015 demonstration on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The day before, a 13-year-old surfer was killed by a bull shark.
19. Wolves
10 fatalities per year
Wolves are typically fearful of humans and avoid people when possible, but occasionally, due to rabies, fear and even provocation by victims, wolves can attack.
Wolves kill farm animals
Attacks on humans are rare, but attacks on domestic animals such as dogs and livestock are more common. French farmers protested in 2014, demanding their government take action to stop wolf attacks on their sheep.
18. Jellyfish
40 fatalities per year
These jellyfish, called Pacific Sea Nettles, possess an extremely painful sting. Fortunately for humans, that sting is rarely fatal. Stings from species such as the box jellyfish can be deadly.
The Portuguese man o' war
Stings by the Portuguese man o' war can also be deadly, but this gelatinous terror is, technically speaking, not a true jellyfish, but a colony of smaller organisms.
17. Tigers
50 fatalities per year
Tiger attacks have claimed many lives over the years in India, and attacks occasionally happen in zoos, including a fatal incident at the San Francisco zoo in 2007. A Bengal tiger famously attacked magician Roy Horn, of Siegfried & Roy, during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving him partially paralyzed.
Zoo tiger attack
A boy was mauled to death by a tiger at the Delhi Zoo in 2014 when he either jumped or fell into an enclosure.
16. Bees
60 fatalities per year
Bees, wasps, hornets and other flying insects are consistently among the deadliest animals in the United States. Frequently, these deaths occur when people allergic to the stings experience anaphylactic shock.
But in some parts of the world...
In some parts of the world, people actively seek out apitherapy, a practice that uses bee stings to treat conditions from arthritis to cancer.
(TIE) 15. Lions
100 fatalities per year
Lions are predators, and humans, if available, are easy prey. Reports of lions killing poachers and tourists are not uncommon.
Hunters hunt
This lion is seen feasting on a buffalo, which can be a much harder kill than an unsuspecting human.
(TIE) 15. Elephants
100 fatalities per year
Elephants are herbivores, but these giant creatures can be very dangerous if agitated.
Elephant rage
In regions such as eastern India, humans and elephants have come into fatal contact as urban development encroaches on the elephants' habitat.
13. Hippopotamuses
500 fatalities per year
Hippos are notoriously aggressive and can easily capsize a small boat and kill its occupants if the hippo feels threatened.
Don't provoke the hippos
Jean Ducuing, a French zoo director, was photographed in 1995 playing with a hippo named Komir. Ducuing was killed four years later when the same hippo rushed out of his enclosure.
12. Crocodiles
1,000 fatalities per year
Crocodiles are fast and aggressive and therefore very dangerous to humans. But in this village in Burkina Faso, crocodiles are revered for, as local legend says, leading women from the drought-stricken village to a hidden pond.
But not everyone reveres crocodiles
In Indonesia, an angry mob attacked crocodiles with axes after one of the animals killed a local man.
11. Tapeworms
1,600 fatalities per year
Humans can contract any one of several species of tapeworm from eating raw or undercooked meat such as pork or beef. Undercooked fish can also contain the parasite's eggs.
You might not even know you have it
Tapeworm is one of those infections that can exist inside your body with few to no symptoms.
10. Ascaris roundworms
2,700 fatalities per year
Experts estimate that one-sixth of Earth's population is infected with some kind of roundworm.
It's not just a digestion problem...
Untreated, the roundworm parasite can migrate from the small intestine to other organs including the liver, lungs and heart.
(TIE) 9. Tsetse flies
3,500 fatalities per year
Tsetse flies, found in sub-Saharan Africa, carry a species of dangerous organisms called trypanosomes which, when transmitted to humans through the fly's bite, cause deadly sleeping sickness.
Sleeping sickness
Sleeping sickness got its name from the second phase of the parasitic infection. Infected people experience daytime sleeping episodes as well as insomnia at night. Untreated, sleeping sickness will result in death after several years.
(TIE) 9. Scorpions
3,500 fatalities per year
Scorpions have venomous stingers that inject neurotoxins and enzyme inhibitors into their prey.
But humans fight back
In addition to killing scorpions that make it into their homes, humans in some regions dine on the arachnid, including this woman in Mexico City.
7. Freshwater snails
4,400 fatalities per year
The freshwater snail is responsible for transmitting a deadly parasitic disease called schistosomiasis. The disease is most commonly found in Africa, Asia and South America.
You don't have to meet a snail to be infected
If a person's skin comes in contact with water where these snails live, that person can contract schistosomiasis. The parasite damages the liver, intestines and spleen.
6. Kissing bugs
8,000 fatalities per year
Also known as assassin bugs, these insects can transmit the parasite that causes Chagas disease through their bite. Unlike many other dangerous insects, the kissing bug can be found in the United States.
Chagas disease
Most people who have Chagas disease do not know that they are infected, but the chronic illness causes digestive issues and heart damage. It is also responsible for a large number of stillbirths in Brazil.
5. Dogs
17,400 fatalities per year
Man's best friend can also be very deadly.
Maulings happen
In 2007, this 4-year-old pit bull in the Philippines mauled a girl and killed her grandmother in their home in the suburbs of Manila. The man, a local veterinarian, planned to rehabilitate the dog.
4. Sandfly
24,200 fatalities per year
This tiny fly can transmit a parasitic disease called leishmaniasis. The disease comes in three main forms: cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, the deadliest of the three.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis
This Afghan woman is seen being treated for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Afghanistan saw a major outbreak of this form of the parasitic disease in 2009, which is disfiguring but treatable. Visceral leishmaniasis, on the other hand, is fatal in 95 percent of untreated cases.
3. Snakes
60,000 fatalities per year
The common lancehead snake, also known as the barba amarilla pit viper, has some of the deadliest venom of any snake in the world. This snake is native to South America.
Malayan pit viper bite
The Malayan pit viper's venom is only fatal in about 2 percent of cases. But victims of this snake's bite often have to have limbs amputated due to tissue necrosis.
2. Humans
580,000 fatalities per year
From shootings to car accidents to military actions, humans are responsible for more than a half-million human fatalities every year.
People kill people
Seventeen people died when a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in Feb. 2018.
1. Mosquitoes
830,000 fatalities per year
When most people think of mosquito-borne illness, they think of malaria, but Zika, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever also can be fatal.
Malaria: the deadliest mosquito-borne illness
This photo was taken in Ghana in May 2018 as workers sprayed a new insecticide designed to control and prevent malaria around a local home.
The World Health Organization reports malaria killed 445,000 people in 2016.