Animal attacks

Animal attacks are an uncommon cause of either human fatalities or injuries. The frequency of animal attacks varies with geographical location. In the United States, a person is more likely to be killed by an animal than they are to die from being hit by lightning.

Animal attacks have been identified as a major public health problem. In 1997 it was estimated that up to 2 million animal bites occur each year in the United States. Injuries caused by animal attacks result in thousands of fatalities worldwide every year. All causes of death are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year. Medical injury codes are used to identify specific cases. The World Health Organization uses identical coding, though it is unclear whether all countries keep track of fatalities caused by animals.

Injuries and infections

Bite injuries are often the consequences of an animal attack, including those instances when a human attacks another human. Human bites are the third most frequent type of bite after dog and cat bites. Dog bites are commonplace, with children the most commonly bitten and the face the most common target. In 1936, amputation was required in one third of cases in which treatment was delayed for 24 hours or longer.

Epedimiology and treatment

Animal bites are the most common form of injury from animal attacks. The US estimated annual count of animal bites is 250,000 human bites, 1 to 2 million dog bites, 400,000 cat bites, and 45,000 bites from snakes. Bites from skunks, horses, squirrels, rats, rabbits, pigs, and monkeys may be up to 1 percent of bite injuries. Pet ferrets attacks that were unprovoked have caused serious facial injuries. Non-domesticated animals though assumed to be more common especially as a cause of rabies infection, make up less than one percent of reported bite wounds. When a person is bitten, it is more likely to occur on the right arm, most likely due to defensive reactions when the victims uses her or his dominant arm. Estimates are that three quarters of bites are located on the arms or legs of humans. Bites to the face of humans constitutes only 10 percent of the total. Two thirds of bite injuries in humans are suffered by children aged ten and younger. The subsequent treatment for those who have been attacked (if they survive) depends on the injuries. Though trauma may be addressed first, subsequent infections are also treated with appropriate antibiotics.

Up to three fourths of dog bites happen to those younger than 20 years-old. In the United States, the costs associated with dog bites are estimated to be more than $1 billion annually. The age groups that suffer most from dog bites are children 5 to 9 years-old. Often, bites go unreported and no medical treatment given - these bites go unreported. As many as one percent of pediatric emergency room visits are for treatment for animal bites. This is more frequent during the summer months. Up to five percent of children receiving emergency care for dog bites are then admitted to the hospital. Bites typically occur in the late afternoon and early evening. Girls are bitten more frequently by cats than they are by dogs. Boys are bitten by dogs two times more often than girls are bitten by dogs.

Medical codes for animal attacks

Injuries resulting from encounters with animals occur with sufficient frequency to require the use of medical codes by clinicians and insurance companies to document such encounters. The ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Codes are used for the purpose of clearly identifying diseases, their causes, injuries in the United States. Clinicians use these codes to quantify the medical condition and its causes and to bill insurance companies for the treatment required as a result of encounters with animals.

• dog bites
• dolphin
• sea lion
• orca
• fish
• mice
• rat
• squirrel

Crocodilians

Alligators

Main article: List of fatal alligator attacks in the United States by decade

Crocodiles

Main article: Crocodile attack

Crocodile attacks often result in fatalities. Estimates of deaths due to attacks by the Nile crocodile is estimated be hundreds and possibly thousands yearly. Attacks by Nile crocodiles range from 275 to 745 per year. 63% of these are fatal. Only 30 attacks have been recorded per year by saltwater crocodiles, of which 50% are fatal. Fatal attacks are typically made by very large crocodiles are considered to be predatory. The Nile crocodile is considered to be the most prolific predator of humans among wild animals at this time. Crocodile tracking technology is currently under development that would prevent attacks.

African buffalo

In the early 1990s one African village suffered at least one human death and more than one attack from buffalo in the area of their village. The attacks stopped after a fence was built around the village to protect it.

Arthropods

Bees, wasps, scorpions, and other stinging or biting arthropods cause human fatalities but these are not as often characterized as 'attacks'. It may be difficult to characterize some of these encounters as offensive or defensive. An arthropod 'attack' instead of causing tissue trauma such as cutting, lacerating, crushing or the severing of body parts may instead cause a physiological reaction that results in human death. These effects are toxic effects and allergic effects.

Listing deaths due stings and allergic reactions from arthropods is not practical but some of the more unusual cases include:

Ants

In 2006 a 68-year-old South Carolina woman died after being attacked by fire ants while gardening. Residents in nursing homes have been attacked.

Jack jumper ants have caused numerous fatalities. In 1931 two adults and an infant were killed in New South Wales allegedly from jack jumper ants or Myrmecia pyriformis. In 1963 another caused by an ant attack documented in Tasmania. Identification of venom allergens began in the early 1990s. all in Tasmania and all due to anaphylactic shock. The fatality rate was one person every four years from the sting.

Bees

Africanized honey bees are known to attack people unprovoked.

Hornets

Asian giant hornets in China have killed at least 42 people injured 1,675 more.

Yellow jackets

• 1998 - A two-year-old boy died in Tampa, Florida when yellow jackets stung him.
• 2002 - An 83-year-old man died when yellow jackets stung him while doing yardwork in Hillsborough County, Florida.
• 2013 - A family in Atlanta, Georgia were attacked and were hospitalized.

Bears

Main article: Bear attack

162 bear attacks were reported in the United States between 1900 and 1985. This is about two reported bear attacks per year. During the 1990s bears killed around three people a year in the U.S. and Canada. A black bear killed three teenagers in Algonquin Park in Canada. The majority of attacks happened in national parks. 1028 incidences of black bears acting aggressively toward people, 107 of which resulted in injury, were recorded from 1964 to 1976 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After a 20-year ban, Florida is considering legislation that may permit bear hunting to stop the expanding population of black bears that are a menace in suburban neighborhoods.

Asian black bears

Asian black bears are comparatively more aggressive toward humans than those of Europe. In India, attacks have increased. These occur near the Himalayan region. Here, attacks increased from 10 in 1988–89 to 21 in 1991–92. Recent bear attacks on humans have been reported from Junbesi National Park and Langtang National Park in Nepal, and occurred in villages as well as in the surrounding forest. Li Guoxing, the second person in history to have received a facial transplant, was a victim of a black bear attack.

Between 1979–1989 nine people were killed in Japan . In 2009 one bear attacked a group of tourists in central Japan.

European brown bears

Main article: Eurasian brown bear

Brown bears are considered unpredictable. In 2007, a fatality occurred in Finland from an attack by a European brown bear. Typically one or two people are attacked rather than groups, with no attacks being recorded against groups of more than seven.

Grizzly bears and American black bears

Main article: List of fatal bear attacks in North America

Birds

Cassowaries

1926 – a 16-year-old Queensland boy

Ostriches

In 1997, a woman in South Africa was killed while walking through a field on an ostrich farm.

Bulls

Bulls attack and kill people on farms.

During 2010, a man and woman were walking through a field where a bull was pastured. The man was killed.

Chimpanzees

Main article: Common chimpanzee § Attacks

In 2012, villagers living near Virunga National Park were attacked by common chimpanzees. One girl was killed.

Felids

Cougars

Main article: List of fatal cougar attacks in North America

Panther

In 2005, a British man was attacked by what he described as a black panther.

Tigers

Main article: Tiger attack

Tigers kill more people than any other big cat, and tigers have been responsible for more human deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal. One hundred twenty-nine people were killed by tigers in the Sundarbans from 1969–71. The Sundarbans are occupied by 600 Bengal tigers who before modern times used to "regularly kill fifty or sixty people a year" attacks continue to increase.

Well-known and documented tigers

• Tigers of Chowgarh (1925–30)
• Tiger of Mundachipallam
• Tiger of Segur
• Tigress of Champawat (killed in 1907)
• Tigress of Jowlagiri

Leopards

Main article: Leopard attack

Leopard attacks remain a danger in some areas. One leopard in India killed over 200 people. Leopard attacks usually occur at night.

Oncillas

Although rather small and light, there has been an incident where an oncilla has killed a small child.

Lions

Main article: Lion § Man-eating

Lions enter areas occupied by humans. Lion attacks in Tanzania increased from 1990 to 2005. At least 563 villagers were attacked and many eaten over this period. Researchers argue that conservation policy contributes directly to human deaths. Lions have taken people from the center of large villages. Estimates stand at 550–700 people attacked by lions every year.

Canids

Coyotes

Main article: Coyote attacks on humans

Coyote attacks are uncommon and usually cause little harm but have become more frequent. This is especially true in California. Beginning 30 years prior to 2006 one hundred sixty took place mostly in the Los Angeles County region. 41 attacks occurred during 1988–1997, 48 attacks were verified from 1998 through 2003. The majority of these incidents occurred in Southern California. Some coyotes chase joggers and bicyclists, confront people walking their dogs, and stalk small children. The coyotes that roam Eastern Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States are known as coywolves due to their hybrid with wolves.

• 1988 - an eight-year-old girl was bitten by a coyote while rollerskating in Oceanside, California when she fell to the ground. Two women chased the coyote away by throwing rocks at it.
• 2003 - a teenage girl was bitten on one of her arms by a coyote while hiking on the Skyline Trail at Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia. She survived her injury. The girl's parents managed to frighten the coyote away.
• 2008 - a nine-year-old boy was bitten by a coyote while snowboarding with his six-year-old brother on a golf course behind their house in Erie, Colorado. He used the snowboard to fend off the attack, but was bitten on the arm. A coyote in the area was then killed, but it wasn't clear if that was the same one that had bitten the boy, so he began a course of treatment for rabies.
• 2010 - a five-year-old girl was bitten by a coyote while she was walking with her parents and their dog in Vernon, British Columbia.
• 2010 - two teenage Boy Scouts were bitten a coyote while they were sleeping outside their camping tent near Pole 3 in Port Aransas, Texas. These two boys were taken to a hospital in Corpus Christi for a treatment in rabies shots.
• 2011 - a two-year-old girl was bitten on the neck by a coyote at a playground in Cave Creek, Arizona. She began a course of treatment for rabies after the adults saved her.
• 2012 - a fourteen-year-old boy was attacked by a coywolf while riding on his dirt bike in Westmount, Nova Scotia. His body armour, motocross pants and boots prevented his fatal injuries.
• 2013 - a three-year-old boy in Chicago, Illinois mistook a coyote for a domestic dog and was bitten in the face.
• 2015 - a middle-aged man in Norwood, New Jersey was working in his garden when a coyote attacked him.
• 2015 - two men were attacked by a coyote in Groveland, Massachusetts outside both of their houses. One of them had his four-year-old daughter with him.

Dogs

Main article: Dog bite

Larger dogs are responsible for most animal bites overall and are the most common type of dog that bites with a fatal outcome. In the United States there are 10 to 20 fatal human attacks annually. Not one breed is responsible for most of the bites but at least 25 breeds of dogs were identified in the two hundred thirty-eight fatalities in the past 25 years. Some breeds are more likely to be responsible for these deaths:

• pit bull terriers 51%
• Rottweilers 9%
• others 40%

Some dog breeds possess a crushing force of 1500 psi, being several times higher than a German shepherd. Pitt bull bites are particularly serious because they tend to bite deeply multiple times and grind their molars into tissue. Over ninety percent of pit bulls bites were unprovoked. Most of the time, the victim is known by the owner of the dog. On fewer occations, the bites suffered by the victim is their own dog. Only about ten percent of dog bites are from strays. The National Health and Human Services agency in the United States reports that 9.9% of deaths caused by animals were from dogs.

Wolves

Main article: Wolf attacks on humans

• Kirov wolf attacks
• Wolf of Ansbach
• Wolf of Gysinge
• Wolf of Sarlat
• Wolf of Soissons
• Wolves of Ashta
• Wolves of Hazaribagh
• Wolves of Paris
• Wolves of Périgord
• Wolves of Turku

African Painted Dogs

On November 4, 2012, a two-year-old boy lost his life when African painted dogs mauled him after he fell in into their exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Zookeepers immediately rushed to that area, trying to fire darts in order to frighten the dogs away, and police shot one particularly aggressive dog, which had refused to retreat from the exhibit when called. The other dogs were quarantined for thirty days but there were not plans to put them down. The dogs were sent to other North American zoos.

Dingo

A young mother was tried and convicted for the murder of her young daughter, though she claimed that dingos had taken her. Evidence later proved her account was true.

Elephants

Wild elephants have attacked, harmed and killed people. This fatal incident caused many in the public to discontinue the use of elephants in circus acts. Jacky Boxberger, an Olympic athlete, Bùi Thị Xuân, a Vietnamese woman general and Allen Campbell, a professional elephant trainer were attacked and killed by Asian elephants. Elephants have attacked people in villages in India.

During the past five years there were 37,512 cases of wild elephant attacks with 54 casualties in Pu'er, south China's Yunnan Province

Hippopotamus

Egyptian tomb relief showing a hippopotamus attacking a Nile crocodile

The hippopotamus is often cited as the most dangerous animal in Africa, with claims that it kills more people in Africa than lions or elephants, but there is no reliable research to support this.

Hyenas

Attacks on humans by spotted hyenas are underreported. A pair of hyenas were responsible for killing 27 people in Mulanje, Malawi in 1962. In 1910 spotted hyenas were observed to kill sufferers of African sleeping sickness as they slept outside in camps.

Komodo dragons

A man was bitten and subsequently lost his big toe to a Komodo dragon. Attacks occur infrequently in Indonesia.

Macaque

A six week old infant was killed in her home while sleeping by a macaque that entered through the window. The animal had escaped from a zoo.

Sharks

Main article: Shark attack

Out of the four hundred eighty shark species, only three are responsible for the majority of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger and bull. The oceanic whitetip has likely killed castaways, not recorded in the statistics.

Snakes

Further information: List of fatal snake bites in the United States

The National Health and Human Services agency in the United States reported 66 fatalities between 1979 and 1990 from snakes.

Pythons

Species of python have attacked people and caused human fatalities. These include:

• Early 19th century – Two people in Indonesia
• 1910 or 1927 – a man on a hunting trip from Burma.
• 1932 – a Filipino teenager was consumed by his pet.
• 1995 – a 29-year-old tapper from southern Malaysia
• 2008 – a 25-year-old woman.
• 2009, a 3-year-old Las Vegas boy was attacked but rescued before being asphyxiated.
• 2009, a two-year-old Orlando area girl was killed

African Rock pythons

An African rock python killed two boys in Campbellton, New Brunswick in 2013.

Wild Boars

In 2014, a wild boar gored a woman several times while she was walking her dogs. After the initial attack, the woman mistakenly believed the pig had left, and attempted to stand. But the boar attacked again.

See also

• 2010 Sharm el-Sheikh shark attacks
• 2013 New Brunswick python attack
• CrocBITE
• Fatal dog attacks in the United States
• Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
• Kali River goonch attacks
• Kenton Joel Carnegie wolf attack
• List of fatal alligator attacks in the United States
• List of fatal bear attacks in North America
• List of fatal cougar attacks in North America
• List of fatal snake bites in the United States
• List of fatal shark attacks in the United States
• List of shark attacks in South African territorial waters
• List of wolf attacks in North America

Bibliography

• Egerton, L. ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of Australian wildlife. Reader's Digest ISBN 1-876689-34-X
• "The Man-Eater of Jowlagiri", from Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue, Kenneth Anderson, Allen & Unwin, 1955
• CrocBITE
• Anitei, Stefan. "The Limits of the Human Nose: How much can a human smell?" Softpedia. 22 January 2007. 17 November 2008 [1]
• Batin, Christopher. "Bear Attacks!" Outdoor Life 210.6 (2003): 46.
• Brandt, Anthony. "Attack". Outdoor Life 197.1 (1996): 52.
• Cardall, Taylor Y. and Peter Rosen. "Grizzly Bear Attack". The Journal of Emergency Medicine 24.3 (2003): 331–333.
• "Death Statistics Comparison". UnitedJustice.com. 7 December 2008. 7 December 2008. [2]
• Driscoll, Jamus. "Bears on the Rampage". Outdoor Life 197.2 (1996): 20.
• The Fear of Wolves – review of wolfs (sic) attacks on humans
• Fergus, Charles. Wild Guide: Bears. Mechanisburg, PA; Stackpole Books, 2005.
• Guo, Shuzhong, et al. "Human facial allotransplantation: a 2-year follow-up study". The Lancet 372.9639 (2008): 631–638.
• Masterson, Linda. Living with Bears. Masonville, CO; PixyJack Press, LLC, 2006.
• Simmons, Shraga. "Olympic Champions". aish.com 22 August 2004. 17 November 2008. [3]
• "Teeth". The Internet Encyclopedia of Science: Anatomy & Physiology. 17 November 2008. [4]
• Ward, Paul and Suzanne Kynaston. Wild Bears of the World. United Kingdom: Cassell plc, 1995
• Whitman, David. "The Return of the Grizzly". Atlantic Monthly 286.3 (2000): 26–31.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• NCIPC bibliography of articles on dog bites
• Dogs Bite but Balloons and Slippers are More Dangerous by Janis Bradley, 2005
• CDC Dog Bite Factsheet
• Global Shark Attack File