Time to Say a Prayer Trivia Quiz

Answer: shark

In 2023, the International Shark Attack File recorded 10 fatal shark attacks, which was itself double the number of fatalities in 2022. The great white, the tiger shark, and the bull shark are responsible for most deaths. While sharks seem scary, humans are a much bigger threat to sharks than they are to us. Humans kill tens of millions of sharks a year, largely for their meat which is considered a delicacy in many places around the world, especially in Asia.

Answer: lion

Lions are almost extinct in Asia, and their population in Africa is declining. Their population at the time of writing is only around 25000.

As humans push into lion-inhabited areas, interaction between humans and lions increases, which leads to some lions seeing humans as prey. The Tsavo man-eaters of Kenya were said to have killed and eaten dozens of people.

Answer: hippopotamus

Hippos might seem friendly or slow, but they have a bite force higher than jaguars and can hit top speeds of 20 miles an hour. You wouldn't want to get on the bad side of one of those.

Hippos defend their territory fiercely from perceived threats, both human and animal. Many hippo-related deaths occur when hippos knock over boats.

Answer: elephant

Like many other large animals, elephant populations are in decline, but there are still around 400,000 elephants left in the world in 2024, according to the World Wildlife Fund. A large percentage of these live in the sparsely populated African country of Botswana.

Male elephants undergo a condition called musth, where their testosterone spikes and they become extremely aggressive. When elephants are in musth, they are very dangerous to humans.

Answer: crocodile

While there are many species of crocodiles, the saltwater and Nile crocodiles are by far the most dangerous. While other crocodiles have been known to kill humans, they usually do so when reacting to a perceived threat. Saltwater and Nile crocodiles, on the other hand, see humans as prey.

Answer: scorpion

The majority of scorpion deaths happen in poor regions of the world, such as Africa, India, and South America. Residents of rural areas in these regions often struggle to get life-saving medical care, which would greatly reduce fatalities.

While most scorpion bites are not fatal, a small percentage of people suffer allergic reactions which can be deadly. Children are also at higher risk.

Answer: tsetse fly

The animals listed above all carry dangerous diseases. Tsetse flies don't just kill humans, they also kill domestic animals such as cattle, horses, and pigs, which severely inhibits the African economy in places where the fly is prevalent.

Answer: dog

Domestication has been a boon for dogs, as there are now about 900 million dogs in the world. Dog bites from uninfected dogs, while often in the news, are actually responsible for very few deaths. Areas with large stray dog populations, mainly in Asia and Africa, are at much higher risk because of the prevalence of rabies.

Answer: snake

There are thousands of species of snakes around the world, and not all are dangerous. Of those who do, some rely on venom, and some on constricting their prey to death.

The vast majority of human deaths are due to venomous snakes; deaths due to constrictors are much rarer. According to the Humane Society, deaths due to all constrictors (which include boa constrictors and Burmese Pythons) totaled only 17 people in the United States between 1978 and 2012.

Answer: mosquito

There have been many ways that mankind has attempted to lower the amount of mosquitoes that we must deal with. Perhaps the most ingenious is the introduction of sterile mosquitoes into the environment. These creatures cannot reproduce, but still mate with other fertile mosquitoes, denying them offspring and thus lowering the number of mosquitoes that are born.

Mosquitoes carry a variety of deadly diseases, such as dengue, zika virus, malaria, and yellow fever, among others.