Nightmares of Nature

Being attacked and eaten alive by a maneater is perhaps the worst nightmare humans can conceive of – and it's true, there are animals out there that include us on the menu. but how often do such attacks really happen? What are the hard facts? Are our fears about the large carnivores like lions, tigers, crocodiles, bears and wolves really justified, or are there other large creatures that we should be even more wary of?

The dark blue depths of the world's oceans have hidden many monsters in the minds of the world's seafarers. In 1974, in the Gulf of Mexico, a ship-wrecked family lost two children to the ocean and its creatures – so real dangers do lie below the waves. But how much is myth and how much is truth? Which kills more people: the three tonne great white shark or a small blob of jellyfish?

Dr Stemmed of the Chicago Natural History Museum was bitten by an unidentified snake on 25 September 1957 – within 24 hours he was dead. The boomslang which bit him is not the most venomous cold-blooded animal, nor perhaps the most dangerous – the most poisonous animal is a frog and giant dragons have eaten children on the Island of Rinca.

The benign huntsman spider is the cause of many car crashes in the Australian outback – mainly because the appearance of a large spider inside a car has an alarming effect on the driver. The spiders, scorpions, insects, slugs, leeches, caterpillars and larvae that occur all over the world are all fairly repulsive to most people. Many species are completely harmless, but some do bite, burrow under your skin or suck your blood.

The night is a frightening time for humans – we are poorly equipped to see in the dark, whereas nearly all the animals we encounter can see perfectly. Out of the night come bats and maggots, to suck your blood, rats, to spread plague, and mosquitoes, the species that inadvertently kills more people that any other by transmitting malaria in its bite.