# What is the most dangerous wild animal in England? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375 "2003-07-05T13:51:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/101 "2003-07-07T22:48:43Z")
Yes I’m in the UK. Anaphylaxis is because of an allergy that a tiny number of people have not because there is anything inherently dangerous in a bee sting. Some people are allergic to peanuts and can die if they eat them, this doesn’t mean peanuts are inherently dangerous. I think you need to distinguish between things that would be dangerous to everybody and things that are only dangerous if you have some kind of rare allergy. For example, if a shark bites your head off you will die, doesn’t matter what allergies you have. However in order to be killed by a bee sting you _also_ need to have an extremely rare condition. So that’s two seperate factors that need to be present in order for a bee sting to be fatal. I know that people do get stung by wasps but I still think it’s a lot rarer than you think. People get all excitable whenever a wasp comes near them and they make a big fuss but how many of them actually get stung? I’ve been stung once in my whole life and I was asking for it on that occasion - climbing beneath a low bridge where some wasps were hanging out. Hornets are rare in the UK and in any case [they aren’t aggressive](http://www.uksafari.com/hornets.htm) despite their reputation. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/102 "2003-07-07T23:25:58Z")
I think you may be projecting your solitary sting experience onto the whole populace (to be fair, maybe I am projecting too; I have received probably over thirty wasp stings in my life) Both of my kids have (aged only 7 and 4) have been stung several times each, and so on - maybe I just happen to be sitting in the middle of a meaningless statistical cluster. I call bullshit (or maybe ‘naturalist propaganda’) on the ‘hornets aren’t aggressive’ shtick - your cite goes on to say “If provoked, like most other wasps, they can give a painful sting”. I can tell you from personal experience that the provocation threshold for these insects is actually rather low - ‘provocation’ can include really simple things like picking up a cake that the hornet just happens to be interested in, or trying to humanely remove the insect from a window - if a dog attacked you for eating your own food, you’d call it aggressive. I also think it is arguable whether the allergy thing disqualifies wasps from being dangerous - certainly it is true that not everybody is at risk, but a fatality caused by _any_ wild animal is likely to be attributable to a number of factors (the shark wouldn’t bite you if you didn’t happen to like swimming in the sea, for example), if we’re simply looking for the statistically highest killer, then wasps appear to be ahead of badgers and wild boar. Perhaps **astro** , as the thread originator, would care to adjudicate. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/103 "2003-07-08T00:40:58Z")
You obviously have it in for bees, maybe you ought to consult a bee psychiatrist 🙂 > [@](#): > > I can tell you from personal experience that the provocation threshold for these insects is actually rather low Not low, just different. All animals have different thresholds so: > [@](#): > > ‘provocation’ can include really simple things like picking up a cake that the hornet just happens to be interested in, or trying to humanely remove the insect from a window Well don’t pick up cakes that they are interested in or try to remove them (without taking precautions). It all comes down to knowing the mind of a bee. You can let a wasp land on your hand and crawl about and it won’t sting you as long as you don’t start to flap about and get excited. It doesn’t want to sting you, it can’t eat you and you’re not a threat unless you start to flap about. Wasps aren’t like midges or mosquitos that want your blood (and will bite you whatever you do), wasps will only sting if you give them a reason to. Bees are pretty clever animals, you just have to learn how they think. Once you learn this then they aren’t dangerous (at least the UK ones - I’m not talking about African Killer Bees here). You do however need to avoid them in late autumn when their nest starts to disintegrate and they all start to roam independently getting drunk on rotting, fomenting fruit. Then they turn into minature, evil, flying, stinging balls of badness. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/104 "2003-07-08T01:22:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*I also think it is arguable whether the allergy thing disqualifies wasps from being dangerous - certainly it is true that not everybody is at risk, but a fatality caused by _any_ wild animal is likely to be attributable to a number of factors (the shark wouldn’t bite you if you didn’t happen to like swimming in the sea, for example), if we’re simply looking for the statistically highest killer, then wasps appear to be ahead of badgers and wild boar. Perhaps **astro** , as the thread originator, would care to adjudicate. \*\* I _was_ looking for conventionally dangerous wild animals specifically the stalking, pouncing, biting, rending, eating you and defecating you over a cliff kind, but these seem to be long gone in England at this point so I suppose if bees and badgers are the hardest core badasses left at this point that’s what we’ll have to take. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/105 "2003-07-08T03:33:17Z")
When I was a young tyke in New Brunswick, Canada, an older child told me to stick my hand down a hole to catch a mouse. It was a wasp nest. Hundreds of stings, from head to toe. I lived. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/106 "2003-07-08T07:48:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jojo \* > **Well don’t pick up cakes that they are interested in or try to remove them (without taking precautions).** Great white sharks aren’t dangerous - as long as you just don’t go swimming. > [@](#): > > **It all comes down to knowing the mind of a bee.** See this is the problem - picking up a cake is a normal, non-hostile action for a human; in what way does ‘easily provoked into attacking’ not equate to ‘being aggressive’? at least from the human point of view. You _can_ let a wasp land on you and crawl about, but if you do it often enough, you will eventually be stung for no easily apparent reason; maybe you moved a little bit too much, maybe the insect didn’t like the scent of your skin, whatever - but people do sometimes get stung for no apparent reason. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/107 "2003-07-08T08:07:05Z")
One reason (the chief reason?) why bees are less likely to sting than wasps is that bees’ stings are _barbed_ and remain in the victim’s flesh after they are stung. When the sting is pulled out of the bee’s body it causes it to be fatally injured. Wasps’ stings are smooth-sided and so they can sting numerous times without cost to the insect. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/108 "2003-07-08T09:41:49Z")
Another reason is that bees aren’t so interested in human foodstuffs. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375/109 "2003-07-08T09:52:15Z")
Back to the deer. Reindeer (Caribou) are farmed in Britain, but don’t exist wild: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1717916.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1717916.stm) [http://www.stumbletree.freeserve.co.uk/reindeer%20head%202.jpg](http://www.stumbletree.freeserve.co.uk/reindeer%20head%202.jpg) Heartwarmingly the main purpose seems to be for Xmas promotional duties rather than venison. But I’m sure they must trample a few kids every year. How many people die choking on insects? What about infections spread by houseflies? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-dangerous-wild-animal-in-england/186375.md?page=5)