Encounters between a man and an animal that end with the death of the former are exceptionally rare but not impossible: without bothering the “usual” mosquitoes, fatal accidents involving some animal happen every year.
Are there predators that actively hunt us, considering us their prey? The answer is yes, but their attacks are even rarer than accidental deaths. Rare but not impossible: there are at least three species that, as far as we know, can, in exceptional situations, treat us like prey.
Lions. Lions are among the very few large predators for which we have rare direct evidence of active hunting of humans: a sensational example that hit the headlines was a 2015 attack on a woman who was on safari in South Africa. In general, the numbers don’t lie: in Tanzania alone there are around 50 deaths per year due to lion attacks, which almost always occur at night and have young men as victims who return home after partying. It must be said that Tanzania is a “hot spot” for lions, which have their largest population here and are much more likely to cross paths with a human.
Bears. Polar bear attacks, on the other hand, are rarer but not impossible: here is a news case from 2023, in Alaska, and here one from 2024, in Canada. In general, however, we are talking about truly rare cases: a 2017 study counts a total of 73 white bear attacks between 1870 and 2014, 20 of which were fatal and 20% of which occurred between 2010 and 2014. Reason? There is less and less food in nature, and males in particular tend to move closer and closer to inhabited areas.
Crocodiles. Finally, we cannot fail to mention crocodiles: of the 26 known species, there are 8 which, at least once in history, have hunted humans. The most efficient are the Nile crocodile and the saltwater crocodile: the most famous is perhaps Osama, a Nile crocodile which, before being captured, managed to kill 83 people in the area around Lake Victoria.
The important detail about crocodiles is that, unlike the animals mentioned so far, they do not really actively hunt humans, but are opportunists – when they find prey in a difficult situation they attack it, and it may happen that one of these prey is a human being.
Humans. Obviously, these numbers pale in comparison to those for the opposite situation, i.e. how many animals are killed by humans every year. It is impossible to make a precise estimate, but every year billions of domestic animals die, killed for food, and tens of millions of wild animals, hunted or otherwise affected in some way by our activities. In short: lethal attacks by animals on humans are a rarity, while the opposite is the rule.
