Since time immemorial, humans have consistently displayed a bizarre and frankly foolish fascination
with dangerous animals. Creatures with the ability to injure, maim and straight up kill
us in a variety of fun and unusual ways have beguiled humankind for millennia, but it’s
one particular method of mayhem that we’ll be looking at today; venom. But which of the
animal kingdom’s stabbiest, snappiest critters is the most venomous of them all?
I’m Stu, this is Debunked, and we’re here to sort the truths from the myths, and the
facts from the misconceptions. First off, we’re gonna need to figure out
exactly what we mean by a ‘venomous animal’.
The word ‘venomous’ is often mixed up with the related term ‘poisonous’, though
both words are used to refer to animals that produce toxins, there is an important distinction
between the two.
Turns out, it’s all in the delivery. Venomous animals administer their harmful payload by
biting or stinging their target, while poisonous animals merely secrete toxins passively.
Put simply, if you bite it and you die, it's poisonous.
If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.
It's also worth pointing out that some particularly fearsome animals, such as certain species
of snakes and frogs, are both poisonous and venomous. So that’s fun.
Now that we know exactly what it takes to be a venom-injecting monster, which animal
scurrying around out there in the dense jungles, scorching deserts, and treacherous oceans
of the world can lay claim to the chilling accolade of...
...the most venomous of them all?
Well, once again we run into even more bureaucracy, as we are forced to ask ourselves what exactly
makes an animal the ‘most venomous’? Is it the venom’s potency? The amount of venom
that a particular animal can deliver? Or do we just look at the beastie that’s racked
up the most kills in the all time venom-killer scoreboard?
If we’re looking at the most potent venom on Earth, we need to learn a little about
something called the median lethal dose, also known as the ‘LD50’, an abbreviation of
‘lethal dose, 50%’.
This refers to the amount of venom needed to kill half the members of a tested population,
meaning the lower the score, the stronger the venom.
However, the strength of the venom also depends on several other factors, including who or
what the venomous animal is attacking, and where on their body they are bitten or stung.
What may be extremely toxic to humans may have little or no effect on other animals,
and different toxins behave very differently when administered to the various parts of
a victim’s body.
For instance, the slippy boi APARASPHENODON BRUNOI [uh-PAH-ruh-SVEN-uh-don broo-NOY] a.k.a
Bruno's casque-headed frog, a recently discovered species of frog endemic to the forests of
Brazil, has been found to possess venom with an LD50 as low as 0.16 milligrams per kilogram
of body weight. Scaled up, that means that 1 gram of this lil’ rascal’s venom could
theoretically kill as many as 80 people.
But before we throw the book at this murderous scallywag, we must also consider the fact
that its venom only manages to achieve this level of carnage when it is injected directly
into the victim’s abdominal cavity, or ‘intraperitoneally’ [IN-truh-PEH-ruh-tuh-NAY-uh-lee].
In the real world, this species of frog delivers its potent injection of venom through tiny,
bony spikes on its skull, which it pokes into its victims using adorable little headbutts.
This method of delivery only manages to administer the venom just underneath the skin, or ‘subcutaneously’,
which makes the deadly cocktail of toxins over 10 times weaker. Ultimately, despite
its ability to produce extremely potent venom, the delivery method and small dosage make
it unlikely that this species of frog could ever kill a human.
Still, we certainly can look at which animals produce the most potent death-inducing juices,
and my my, what a motley crew of assassins we have before us.
We have animals like the black mamba, so called for the inky black inside of its mouth, which
possesses venom that can kill humans in less than 15 minutes and also happens to be the
world’s fastest land snake, capable of moving at speeds of almost 20 kilometres (or about
12 miles) per hour, with the average human running speed varying from 10 to 25 kph I’ll
let you decide whether you could out run this killer.
Or, we could talk about the snazzy blue-ringed octopus, a tiny little cephalopod decorated
all over in hypnotic flashing blue rings, that uses an often painless bite to deliver
a venom over 1,000 times as toxic as cyanide.
Perhaps we could talk about the deathstalker, which, despite being one of the world’s
deadliest species of scorpion, possesses a venom found to be helpful in the treatment
of brain tumours in humans.
Ultimately, most sources identify the winner in the ‘most potent venom’ pageant as
the gelatinous blob of “hell no” known as the box jellyfish.
Individuals of this species possess an extremely dangerous venom that works by opening up holes
in their victim’s red blood cells, causing potassium to leak out into the bloodstream.
"THE LEAKAGE OF MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF POTASSIUM FROM RED BLOOD CELLS IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS
THAT COULD HAPPEN IN THE BODY," As a result, not only does the venom of the
box jellyfish produce excruciating pain in its victims, it also prompts cardiac arrest
that can lead to death in as little as 2 minutes.
In some cases, swimmers unfortunate enough to be stung by a box jellyfish have drowned
before they could even make it back to shore.
And so, with an LD50 as low as 0.04 milligrams per kilogram, numerous scientists, as well
as jellyfish expert Dr Angel Yanagiharat have claimed
“THE BOX JELLYFISH IS THE MOST VENOMOUS ANIMAL IN THE WORLD,”
You’d think that would be the end of it, discussion over, but perhaps not, unsurprisingly,
there remains some disagreement within the scientific community regarding the winner
of the ‘most potent venom’ accolade.
By some estimates, the venom of Australia’s inland taipan boasts an LD50 as low as 0.025
milligrams per kilogram of body weight, simultaneously making it the MOST TOXIC SNAKE VENOM ON EARTH,
and nudging this snake species just slightly ahead of the box jellyfish in terms of potency.
However, some research suggests that the world’s most powerful venom actually comes from an
entirely different and perhaps unexpected creature. Say hello to the geography cone
snail, a small species of sea snail that produces a truly terrifying venom with an LD50 as low
as 0.012 milligrams per kilogram. At this level of toxicity, the venom found within
a single geography cone snail is enough venom to kill roughly 700 people.
Indeed, the venom of the geography cone snail is so extremely toxic that it's even been
identified as a danger to public safety due to its potential use in Biological Weapons
of Mass Destruction.
Regardless, there’s more to venom than its potency, as another important factor in how
dangerous a venomous animal might be is the sheer amount of venom it can inject into their
victims. The king cobra, for instance, is capable of injecting its victims with as much
as 7 milliliters - or roughly one and a half teaspoons - of venom in a single bite.
Considering the fact that these snakes, which are found throughout much of India and Southeast
Asia, often bite 3 or 4 times in a single attack, the amount of venom it could potentially
inject into its unlucky target may well trump the more toxic bites of other species.
Even so, the king cobra doesn’t have to rely on quantity alone; while its venom lacks
the extreme potency of those produced by the most toxic nope-ropes,
a single bite’s worth of venom is still enough to kill 20 people, or even a fully-grown
elephant in as little at three hours.
But, when it comes to which animal produces the largest amounts of venom, unfortunately
the answer is far from definitive.
FMost sources list some species of snake as the likely record-holder, offering up candidates
such as the eastern diamondback rattlesnake found in the Southeastern United States, as
well as aforementioned species such as the king cobra and the inland taipan.
Regardless, it’s believed that the world’s number one venom-creator is the gaboon viper,
a menacing serpent found throughout a large region of central Africa that carries around
up to 9.7 millitres of venom in case it needs to envenomate some fools.
Not only that, the gaboon viper also has the largest fangs of any snake, measuring up to
5 centimetres (or about 2 inches) in length.
Ultimately however, producing extremely potent venom
or extremely large amounts of it doesn’t necessarily make an animal the most deadly.
Statistically speaking, many of the uber-venomous creatures we’ve mentioned on this list are
responsible for relatively few human deaths; this is partly because of advances in medical
science that have prevented envenomated individuals from dying, but also simply because we may
not encounter these animals particularly often in the first place.
For example, if we go back for a moment to our old friend the geography cone snail, it
is interesting to note that despite its ability to produce probably the most potent animal
venom on the face of the planet, there are less than 40 recorded cases of people dying
after having been stung by one. Like, ever.
Similarly, the previously mentioned inland taipan, producer of the world’s most potent
snake venom, actually very rarely kills humans. Despite the fact that they possess venom that
kills 80% of untreated human victims,
inland taipans are, generally-speaking, exceedling shy, reclusive, and non-confrontational snakes,
that will almost always slither away from disturbances than throw down. That’s right
- the most potently venomous snake on Earth is an introvert.
On the other hand, between the year 2000 and 2017, stings from members of the insect order
Hymenoptera - which includes bees, wasps, hornets, and ants - led to the deaths of well
over 1,100 people in the United States alone.
This is both because stings and bites from insects are obviously far more common, and
because although the venoms that these animals produce is relatively weak, they can sometimes
trigger life-threatening allergic reactions. As a result, most of the venomous animals
that pose the biggest threat to humans possess relatively wimpy venom.
With that in mind, we can really open up the question and simply ask which venomous creature
kills the most humans using venom, regardless of said venom’s potency.
Without zeroing in on a specific species, once again the serpents reign supreme; according
to the World Health Organisation, snakebites cause up to a staggering 140,000 deaths worldwide
every single year.
Of the venomous snakes, the species that racks up the most human kills is the very observantly-named
saw-scaled viper. Found throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, and India,
the saw-scaled viper is thought to be responsible for more human deaths than all other snake
species combined, primarily because of its aggressive nature and its frequent presence
in populated areas.
And so, the search for the world’s most venomous animal throws up a number of deserving
winners, each capable of killing you in mere minutes if you so much as look at them funny.
As it turns out, the animals that produce the most venom and have the highest body counts
are snakes,
which perhaps isn’t all that surprising given their formidable reputation,
but in terms of the species that produces the most powerful venom on Earth, legitimate
evidence points towards the geography cone snail, despite facing tough competition from
yet another serpent and the world’s most dangerous floating box of goo aka the box
jellyfish.
So whether we crown an ornery ophidian or an entirely unnecessarily toxic snail, we
hope you’ve enjoyed learning all about the interesting and highly lethal world
of venom.