The world is inhabited by millions of various animals, ranging from completely harmless and ending with those meeting with which can be fatal. Probably the first animals that come to your mind as the most dangerous are lions, crocodiles, sharks, snakes, scorpions, which make most people fearful. In reality, the most dangerous animal in the world is very small and will hardly make you afraid.
1st place in the ranking of the most dangerous animals in the world: mosquito
It is the mosquitoes that are considered the most dangerous animals in the world. This is due to the fact that they are carriers of viruses of serious diseases - for example, malaria.
Mosquitoes carry bartonellosis, leishmaniasis, mosquito fever, and various other diseases of humans and animals.
Up to three million people per year die from the bites of various subspecies of mosquitoes. Most of the deaths from these parasites occur primarily in Africa. Mosquitoes are most common in countries with tropical and subtropical climates, but their northern boundary is just north of 50 degrees north latitude in Canada and just south of the 50th parallel in northern France and Mongolia.
Mosquitoes: general information
Most mosquitoes are brown, gray or yellow in color. The life span of a female of this insect is approximately 43 to 114 days, depending on the ambient temperature and nutrition, but males live much shorter - about 19 days.
In their natural environment, mosquitoes live in caves, in hollows of trees and animal burrows, and in settlements they most often live under floors or in basements.
Mosquitoes prefer warm and humid environments. In addition, they like to be near small warm stagnant bodies of water or even puddles, since they need water to reproduce. The female of this insect can lay 30 to 180 eggs every two to three days. Within a week, the larvae turn into full-fledged mosquitoes.
The female mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet
Male mosquitoes are not particularly dangerous. They feed on pollen and die immediately after mating. But females feeding on blood are really dangerous.
Female mosquitoes sense crowds of people at a distance of up to three kilometers and rush there. By themselves, their bites are not dangerous, but their saliva contains parasites that, if released into the blood, can cause illness and subsequent death.
Danger of mosquitoes
Feeding a female mosquito takes about 1-2 minutes, but if scared, she can interrupt her feeding process and fly to another object. This increases the likelihood of infection in large numbers of people and, as a result, an increase in mortality from mosquito-borne viruses.
So, the most dangerous animal in the world, although it does not exceed 2 mm in size, can create a huge threat of epidemics of dangerous tropical diseases. Africa accounts for 85-90% of these cases. It should be noted that in Russia, tropical diseases are not spread by mosquitoes, since the latter are immune to them.
But if you returned from a holiday from a hot country and feel weak, lose consciousness or experience a sharp rise in temperature, just in case it is better to do a blood test for viruses.
