The world's deadliest animal isn't a shark or even a human.Drawing from a graphic from Bill Gates' blog, we decided to rankthe world's deadliest animals.
Most of the deaths caused by animals, it turns out, have less to do with the animals themselves than the diseases they unwittingly transmit.
Note that some numbers are harder to get an accurate read on than others, so these are for the most part rough estimates - sometimes very rough. And the list is representative of different kinds of deadly animals, but it's by no means comprehensive.
Here are some of the animals responsible for the most human deaths. The scariest predatorsaren't as dangerousas you might expect - but don't underestimate the little guys.
15. Sharks: 6 deaths a year
Jose María Melero Tejedor/YouTube
Shark attacks are pretty rare.In 2014,there were just three deaths globally related to shark attacks, and in 2015, there were six, which is about the average.
14. Wolves: 10 deaths a year
John Moore/Getty Images
Wolf attacks are not common in many parts of the world where wolves live.
Areview of wolf attacksfound that very few happened in the 50 years leading up to 2002 in Europe and North America, though there were a few hundred reported over the course of two decades in some regions of India, averaging out to close to 10 per year.
13. Lions: 22+ deaths a year
Kenya.AP/Vadim Ghirda
Estimates for lion-related deaths also vary year-to-year. A 2005 study found that since 1990, lions have killed563 people in Tanzania alone, an average of about 22 a year.
Additionaldeaths likely occur outside of Tanzania, but it's difficult to find a concrete global number.
12. Elephants: 500 deaths a year
Thomson Reuters
Elephants are also responsible for a number of deaths per year - a 2005 National Geographic article said that500 people a year are killed in elephant attacks.
Far more elephants have beenkilled by people.
11. Hippopotamuses: 500 deaths a year
REUTERS/Ivan Milutinovic
For a long time,hippos were consideredthe most deadly animal in Africa. Hippos are known for being aggressive toward humans, includingtipping over boats.
9. Tapeworms: 700 deaths a year
Tomas De la Rosa/Wikimedia Commons
Moving to parasites, the tapeworm is responsible for an infection called cysticerosis that kills anestimated 700 people a year.
10. Crocodiles: 1,000 deaths a year
Rob Griffith/AP
Crocodiles are now considered the large animal responsible for themost human deaths in Africa, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, though concrete numbers are tricky to gather.
8. Ascaris roundworms: 4,500 deaths a year
CDC
The Ascaris roundworm leads to an infection called aschariasis that kills an estimated 4,500people a year,according to a 2013 study.
TheWHO notesthat the infection takes place in people's small intestine, and it's a disease that affects more children than adults.
5. Tsetse flies: 10,000 deaths a year
International Atomic Energy Agency/Wikimedia
The tsetse fly transmits a disease called sleeping sickness,a parasitic infection that at first can lead to headaches, fever, joint pain, and itchiness, but later can lead to some serious neurological problems. Thenumber of deaths has beendecreasing.
Withabout 10,000new cases now reported each year, the estimated number of annual deaths is likely on the decline as well.
6. Assassin bugs: 12,000 deaths a year
The assassin bug, alsocalled the kissing bug, is responsible for carrying Chagas disease, whichkills about 12,000 peoplea year on average.
Chagas disease is aparasitic infection passed by the bug, which got its nickname by biting people on the face.
7. Freshwater snails: 20,000+ deaths a year
Flickr/anemoneprojectors
The freshwater snail carries parasitic worms that infect people with a disease called schistosomiasis that can cause intense abdominal pain and blood in the stool or urine, depending on the area that's affected.
Millions of people contract the infection, and theWHO estimatesthat anywhere between 20,000 and 200,000 deaths can be attributed to schistosomiasis.
4. Dogs: 35,000 deaths a year
motionshooter/Shutterstock
Dogs - specifically dogs infected by the rabies virus - are one of the deadliest animals out there, though the viruscan be prevented using vaccines.
About35,000 deaths can be attributed to rabies, and of those cases, 99 percent are caused by dogs, according to WHO.
3. Snakes: 100,000 deaths a year
Nasser Nuri/Reuters
Snake bites killmore than 100,000 people a year as of 2015.Worse still, there'sa troubling shortage of an essential antivenom.
2. Humans: 437,000 deaths a year
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
According to theUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, there were about 437,000 homicides in 2012, making humans the second most deadly animal (and the deadliest mammal) to humans.
We are not quite our own worst enemy - but we're pretty close.
1. Mosquitoes: 750,000 deaths a year
Thomson Reuters
Mosquitoes - the pesky bugs that suck blood and transmit viruses from person to person -areresponsible for the most animal-related deaths.
Malaria by itself is responsible formore than half of mosquito-related deaths,predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, though it's on the decline: The incidence of malaria fell by 37 percent between 2000 and 2015, according to the World Health Organisation.
Dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease,has become a leading cause ofhospitalisation and deathamong children in some Asian and Latin-American countries.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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