Faulkner Ian - Deadly beautiful : vanishing killers of the animal kingdom

Personally, I always thought it was far more sensible to fear bees than sharks. Then I met the beekeepers wife who told me that many more people die from strawberry allergies than bee stings. Ive yet to meet a person who has a phobia about strawberries. But countless people have phobias about spiders and snakes, and such phobias are by no means restricted to highly strung non-scientists. Several prominent zoologists in the United States who specialise in snakesand freely admit to loving themcount themselves as arachnophobes. This allows them to be sympathetic to ophidiophobes (snake phobics). There are plenty of other animal candidates when it comes to phobias. Still, many humans take a perverse pride in wryly asserting that we are the most dangerous animal of all. As usual, we have inflated our importance in the scheme of things. We are indeed dangerous both to ourselves and to the other animals we share the planet with. But in terms of being the most dangerous, we are humbled by microbes. Billions more people and other animals have been killed by microbial animals than large predator species.

Clearly, then, those animals that act as vectors for viral and bacterial disease pose the greatest threat of all. That is why malarial mosquitoes are ranked as the number one most dangerous animal in the world. Of 400 species of Anopheles mosquitoes, only 30 are considered serious vectors for malaria, but worldwide there are 300 million cases of malaria each yearand 100 million deaths. Generally, though, when people think of deadly and dangerous animals, certain specific groups of larger animals are what spring to mind: bears, sharks, big cats, crocodiles, alligators, wolves are among the usual suspects. The list also includes stingrays, snakes, spiders, scorpions, box jellyfish, stonefish, cone shells and the blue-ringed octopus. These animals are the focus of Deadly Beautiful. They are collected together not because of any zoological similaritythey comprise mammals, reptiles, fish, arachnidsbut because they can and have killed humans. And because each of them carries the reputation of being a fearsome and deadly animal.

Even the most cursory investigation, however, reveals that the reputation of many deadly and dangerous animals far exceeds the actual danger they pose to humans. Here we enter the strange world of statistics. Sharks, for example, kill an average of 50 or 60 people a year worldwide. To put that in perspective, in the early 21st century around 900 people are murdered each year in New York State alone, and thats down from regular annual highs of around 2500 in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. On the other hand, deathlike pregnancyis an absolute condition. It is hardly a comfort that fewer than one in 100 million people is bitten by a funnel-web spider if you are the relative of somebody who was. Nonetheless, realistic risk assessment is important. Even the most puritanical of us are gamblerswe play the odds every time we get into a car.

Whether you are fearful ofor fascinated bydeadly animals, this book will give you the chance to find out more about this special class of creatures and the way humans deal with them. It will soon become evident that paying attention to dangerous and deadly animals tells us as much about human nature as it does about the animals themselves. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, bears, crocodiles, wolves, lions and tigers populate our mythologies and fables. Sometimes good, sometimes evil, always powerful: these ber-animals have a second life in human imagination. They also have a real life on planet Earth. Our responses to the actual animals and the real and exaggerated threats they pose are as wildly varied as the creatures themselves.

Zoologists and amateur naturalists generally have a realistic regard for the dangers associated with the subjects of their studies, together with a high level of curiosity about certain classes of animalsreptilia, for instancethat not infrequently translates into deep affection. For some people, all animals are innately fascinating and have an intrinsic right to existand the interest of such people is not lessened because a particular animal possesses the capacity to be deadly to humans. For others, being deadly to humans actually constellates their interest in a particular species. They might start out as hunters and have a conversion experience, putting their considerable knowledge back into the conservation of their erstwhile prey. Some individuals have a compelling attraction to a single species or group of species that amounts to monomania. Depending on how they choose to act this out in the world the results can be a triumph of conservation or a tragedy for the animals, the human, or both. Finally, there are some kinds of human deadly-animal interactions that are not remotely connected to any earthly realities of animal existence. Members of the Church of Christ with Signs Following take literally the biblical words from Mark 16:1718 (King James Bible).

Accordingly, the believers drape themselves with deadly snakes in defiance of the secular law of the United States. An interest in the animals themselves is not requiredthey are merely props for the demonstration of faith.

This book focuses mostly on rehabilitating the reputation of the usual suspects by providing information about their natural history and their place in ecology and conservation. Some of the species featuredelephants and hippopotamusesmay be surprising. Their public images do not generally focus on their fatal capacities, but those who live with or near them are well aware of the threat they can pose to human life. Of course, anything short of an encyclopaedia of dangerous animals is going to have to be very selective about the species included. Here, the basis for selection was the major groups of dangerous animals, and the various ways in which people relate to them. Along the way, however, a motley group of animals presented their credentials as actually or potentially lethal, dangerous or interesting for one reason or another. Although they did not make the final cut, its fun to have a brief look at some of these before proceeding to the featured species.

Theres an old Australian curse that runs May all your chooks turn into emus and kick your dunny door down (may all your domestic poultry ... kick your outside toilet door down!). Maybe its because emus are found throughout Australia, or maybe its hard to fit the word cassowary into a curse, but for my money, this fruit-eating cousin of the emu is larger and flashier. Its also been deadly on at least one occasion. In April 1926 at Mossman, North Queensland, the unfortunate Phillip McClean paid the ultimate penalty for some youthful foolishness. The sixteen-year-old and his mates were chasing a cassowary (