I am having a bit of a discussion with Mrs.Phlosphr, we are wondering what is the most vicious animal on the planet? Our criteria included the following: The animal must possess these qualities: It has to be Fierce, savage, dangerously aggressive, violent.
Here is the top 5 for us: 1=most vicious 5=least vicious
It’s really not an answerable question. There are a number of animals out there that we would perceive as being pretty aggressive for whatever reason. But trying to give a definitive answer as to which is most aggressive brings up too many confounding factors and the old “apples and oranges” issue.
Still, as regards your list, I wouldn’t really rate mountain lions as being anywhere near the top. The are solitary, generally avoid people, and are no more aggressive than any other big cat ( and probably less so than some ).
Hippos can be very aggressive and unpredictable - If you held a gun to my head I suppose that would be my pick. With crocodiles it varies with the species. Wolverines can be nasty customers, there’s no doubt and will outfight critters many times their size. However the same can be said for a number of mustelids, including the American Badger - Wolverines just seem worse because they’re bigger and participate a little higher on the food chain. But I saw a special once with a couple that had raised a couple of orphaned wolverine cubs and they were surprisingly affectionate as adults towards their human keepers :).
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*Originally posted by Slugworth *
**Camel Spider **[/QUOTE
You mean that awful Middle Eastern spider the size of a dinner plate that has a pretty good land speed and jumps onto people’s faces while they’re sleeping? <shudder>
Zoggie: No, Camel Spiders aren’t spiders per se - They’re a different Arachnid order. They’re also called Sun Spiders or Wind Scorpions. Fast-moving, active, voracious predators.
WOW!! Oddly enough the short tailed shrew was on our original list. My dear wife added ‘our cat’ at the last minute. I agree though pound for pound the shrew is very ferocious, savage even, but most certainly violent.
The spider some of you are eluding to. Both my wife and I lived in Tempe Arizona for 4 years whilst attending ASU. We then moved Briefly to Oracle AZ, where we worked at the Bio-Sphere. This was just north of Tucson AZ.
We saw lots of snakes, and during the monsoon saw plenty of huge Tarantula Spiders, but nothing ever let us believe they were ferocious enough to be put on this list.
Once though, we saw our cat ‘Paddy’ covered in Tarantulas after a big rain, she ran outside to kill all the invaders coming out of their small caves…she was innundated by the large arachnids and had to be hosed off promptly. It was a horrific scene, but one we will never forget.
As for thr nominees for most vicious animal…I’d say the amoeba is a good guess, but lets stick to non-primate, non-microscopic, life-forms. And still try and remain objective.
Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It’s a shark riding on an elephant’s back, just trampling and eating everything they see.
(My apologies for taking up bandwidth, but Phlosphr’s e-mail isn’t available via profile.)
Hey there! When were you at the bubble? Did you know Padeye? Hmm… has a cat name Paddy. Are you Padeye? I was a student in '97, loved every minute of it. Thoughts?
Dogs, particularly those bred and trained for viciousness?
Tasmanian devils? Badgers?
Bears can be extremely fierce, savage, and dangerously aggressive.
There’s some geese down by the lake by my house that meet the criteria. At least I think they’re geese–I’m not from around here and don’t know about the local waterfowl. Big white ducks (groin high on me) with orange bills that have a hump near where they meet the head. Whenever anyone goes near them they hiss and honk and start to move, as a group, toward the interloper in an aggressive manner. They also attack the ducks in the lake whenever there’s a good food source nearby (like kids with stale bread). They’re really quite frightening. My nieces call them the humpheads and won’t go near them.
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