Karl P N Shuker

Karl P N Shuker has a PhD in Zoology and Comparative Physiology from the University of Birmingham, and is a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a Member of the Society of Authors. He has penned 25 books and hundreds of articles covering all aspects of natural history. Karl’s work has an emphasis on anomalous animals, including new, rediscovered and unrecognized species.

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Deadliest animal

Based on the number of human deaths from the diseases that they transmit – an estimated 725,000 to 1 million every year – Anopheles mosquitoes are by far the most lethal animals on Earth today. These insects are vectors (carriers/transmitters) of various parasites, which the mosquitoes pass on when feeding on our blood. The most dangerous of these parasites is the one-celled Plasmodium, which causes malaria, but other potentially deadly mosquito-borne illnesses include dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever.