David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

The North American bear, although smaller and less aggressive than the grizzly, can be deadly and has been responsible for many harmful attacks on humans. In 1963, when the Alaskan blueberry crop was poor, hungry black bears attacked at least four people, one of whom they killed.

Estuarine crocodiles are the most prolific man-eaters on earth, killing approximately 2,000 people a year. On the night of February 19, 1945, they were responsible for the most devastating animal attack on human beings in recorded history. British troops had trapped 1,000 Japanese infantrymen, many of whom were wounded, in a swampy area in the Bay of Bengal. The noise of gunfire and the smell of blood attracted hundreds of crocodiles, and by evening the British could hear terrible screams. The following morning, only 20 Japanese were found alive.

The giant squid is the most highly developed of the invertebrates. Its eyes are almost exact replicas of human eyes. It has 10 arms, and its body can reach up to 65 feet in length. Often confused with the octopus, which attacks humans only when threatened, the giant squid is a carnivorous predator. One notable incident occurred on March 25, 1941, when the British ship Britannia sank in the Atlantic Ocean. As a dozen survivors clung to their lifeboat, a giant squid reached its arms around the body of a man and pulled him below. Male squid sometimes eat the female after mating.

The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon can reach 10 feet in length and weigh more than 300 pounds. They are the top predators on the handful of Indonesian islands where they live. Their prey normally consists of deer, wild goats and pigs, but they will eat anything they can catch, including the occasional human. Komodo dragons devour their prey completely, including the bones. All that was left of a French tourist killed in 1986 was his blood-stained shoes. All that was left of a German tourist eaten in 1988 was his mangled glasses.

Considered one of the most dangerous animals to hunt, the leopard is quick and stealthy and is seldom observed. In the central provinces of India, leopards have been known to invade native huts to find their prey. One, known as the Panawar man-eater, is reputed to have killed 400 people. It was shot in 1910 by Jim Corbett, who also killed the Champawat man-eating tigress the following year.

Like tigers, lions do not usually attack humans. Man-eating lions usually hunt in prides, or groups, although occasionally single lions and pairs have become man-eaters. In October 1943, a lone lion was shot in the Kasama District of what is now Zambia after it had killed 40 people.

Pumas have been known to catch prey seven to eight times their own size: a 100-lb female has been seen killing an 800-lb bull elk. In recent years, as people have built subdivisions in the mountains of the Western US, attacks by pumas on humans have exploded. Since 1970, there have been more than 40 attacks, at least 7 of them fatal. In 1994, two female joggers in California were killed and partly consumed by female pumas.

Pythons are quite capable of killing people, and several such incidents have been reported since they became a trendy pet in the 1990s. However, most reports of pythons actually eating humans have proven untrue. A picture circulating on the internet of a boy allegedly recovered from a python’s digestive tract is a hoax. However, there is at least one credible report. In 1992, a group of children playing in a mango plantation near Durban, South Africa, was attacked by a 20-foot rock python, which swallowed one of them. Craig Smith, the owner of a snake park, declared, ‘I’ve dealt with a few cases like this and I always dispel them as absolute rubbish. But in my opinion this one did happen.’

Of the 200 to 250 species of shark, only 18 are known to be dangerous to humans. The most notable are the great white, the mako, the tiger, the white-tipped, the Ganges River, and the hammerhead. The best-known of all individual ‘rogue’ shark attacks occurred on July 12, 1916. Twelve-year-old Lester Stilwell was swimming in Matawan Creek, New Jersey, 15 to 20 miles inland, when he was attacked by a great white shark. Both he and his would-be rescuer were killed. In 10 days four people were killed over a 60-mile stretch of the New Jersey coast. Two days after the last attack, an 8½ foot great white was netted just 4 miles from the mouth of the creek. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, between 1670 and 2003 there were 833 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the United States, 52 of which were fatal.

A tigress known as the Champawat man-eater killed 438 people in the Himalayas in Nepal between 1903 and 1911. Tigers do not usually hunt humans, unless the animals are old, or injured, or have become accustomed to the taste of human flesh.

While it is almost certain that wolves have preyed on human beings at some time in history, there are no confirmed reports of unprovoked attacks on humans by North American wolves. Likewise, there are no confirmed reports of piranha-caused deaths. Observers in the river regions of northeastern South America do report that many natives have lost fingers, toes or penny-sized chunks of flesh while bathing in piranha-infested waters. A school of piranhas can strip a wounded alligator of flesh in five minutes, but they are generally sluggish in their movements.

Sheep Humans

1. Australia 98,200,000 19,731,000

2. Sudan 47,000,000 33,610,000

3. New Zealand 39,250,000 3,875,000

4. Mongolia 11,797,000 2,594,000

5. Uruguay 9,780,000 3,415,000

6. Mauritania 8,700,000 2,893,000

7. Turkmenistan 6,000,000 4,867,000

8. Ireland 4,828,500 3,956,000

9. Namibia 2,370,000 1,987,000

10. Falkland Islands 690,000 3,000

11. Iceland 470,000 290,000

12. Faeroe Islands 68,100 46,000

13. Montserrat 4,700 4,000

World Sheep Population: 1,024,039,610

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT, 2003

Pigs Humans

1. Denmark 12,984,944 5,364,000

2. Samoa 201,000 178,000

3. Wallis and Futuna Islands 29,000 14,000

4. Tuvalu 13,200 10,000

World Pig Population: 956,016,932

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT, 2003

Animal Average erect penis length

1. Humpback whale 10 ft

2. Elephant 5–6 ft

3. Bull 3 ft

4. Stallion 2 ft 6 in.

5. Rhinoceros 2 ft

6. Pig 18–20 in.

7. Man 6 in.

8. Gorilla 2 in.

9. Cat 3⁄4 in.

10. Mosquito 1/100 in. Source: Leigh Rutledge, The Gay Book of Lists (Boston: Alyson Publication, 1987)

Sugar, a two-year-old part-Persian, had a hip deformity that made her uncomfortable during car travel. Consequently, she was left behind with a neighbour when her family left Anderson, California, for Gage, Oklahoma. Two weeks later, Sugar disappeared. Fourteen months later, she turned up in Gage on her old owner’s doorstep — having travelled 100 miles a month to reach a place she had never been. The case was investigated in person by the famous parapsychologist J. B. Rhine, who observed Sugar and interviewed witnesses.