This page has, among other interesting items of information, a map detailing which animal is most likely to be your cause of death should you happen to be one of those unfortunate persons upon whom nature takes its revenge.
As an Okie, if I die because of an animal attack, it is more likely to be from being struck or bitten by a large mammal than anything else. Given the state's large livestock industry and ranching culture, this seems unremarkable. Slightly more mystifying is that if you are killed by an animal in Missouri or Illinois, it is more likely that you were bitten or crushed by a large reptile -- and in fact these are the only two states where that can be said. Florida, where you might think that situation would exist, owes more human life loss to being bitten or stung by non-venomous insects or arthropods. Perhaps the folk of the midwest are so surprised to encounter a large reptile that they fall victim to it, while Floridians are well aware of these creatures' deadly natures.
Of course, all of these figures refer to non-human animals. Include the number of deaths caused by ye olde H. sapiens sapiens and we shoot to the top of the list almost everywhere.
I do fieldwork here regularly in some of the natural areas. People ask me if I am afraid of animals I might encounter out there, usually they are thinking "snakes."
ReplyDeleteI say there are really only two animals I fear, because coyotes will run the other way, bobcats won't even let you see that they're there, snakes will only strike if surprised, and even wasps can be avoided. The only two animals that scare me that are here are wild hogs - because they will run at you - and humans.
If there were black bears here I'd probably add black bear sows with cubs to the list as well, but they're not quite this far west in the state.
I'm serving near the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and the site manager hires a helicopter hunting crew about every five years or so to thin the herds of hogs. In ground-based hunting they'll never confront a group because the critters are hard to kill and in enough numbers will overwhelm the preserve employees.
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