The mosquito, responsible for the current Zika epidemic, is the deadliest animal species in the world. By comparison, the shark appears harmless.
Sharks terrorize you and in your worst nightmares, you get eaten by a lion. However, be aware that you are much more likely to die from an insect or a snail.
The world’s attention is currently focused on the Zika virus, which has reached an epidemic threshold in several areas of South America. This virus, responsible for the birth of babies with microcephaly, is transmitted mainly through the bite of an insect, Aedes albopictus, better known as the Tiger Mosquito.
Insects are our enemies
As recalled an infographic produced by the Bill Gates Foundation in April 2014, the mosquito was the deadliest animal on the planet. Responsible for 725,000 annual deaths, it is the vector of many diseases – malaria, chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, Zika …
Chantale Goya would have lied to us. Insects are not our friends – but then not at all. The tsetse fly kills 10,000 human beings each year; 10,000 other people lose their lives after crossing a representative of the species that the Anglo-Saxons refer to by the evocative term of “assassin bug” (killer insects). We have seen more friendly.
The snail, nastier than the wolf
But you don’t have to look very far to find one of man’s worst enemies. It suffices to look at yourself in a mirror. Humans come second among the animals that kill the most, with 475,000 lives stolen each year. Although the Gates Foundation does not specify what this figure refers to, the data appears to reflect the number of annual homicides around the world.
“Man is a wolf for man”, underlined Thomas Hobbes in the Leviathan. In fact, the English philosopher was well below the reality, since the wolf comes only last of the murderous animals, with the shark (10 deaths per year). These two species, as impressive as they may seem, appear to be small strikes when compared to the terrible freshwater snail, which kills 10,000 a year.
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