Whilst a single sting is not serious getting one of these tentacles tangled around you can be. The Portuguese Man o’ War ( Physalia physalis) whilst not a true jellyfish certainly looks and stings like one. One of the most infamous of all jellyfish is a not uncommon summer visitor to Britain’s coast. The stinging cells also remain active long after the animal has died so washed up specimens can still give a nasty sting. It is capable of delivering a particularly severe sting which may result in blisters, muscle cramps and even impaired respiratory and heart function. Its bell can reach 2 metres (7ft) across and its tentacles can stretch for over 40 metres (120ft). The Lion’s Mane jellyfish ( Cyanea capillata) is the world’s largest. Of these two are particularly worthy of mention and can both be considered dangerous. There are several jellyfish considered native to British waters and a few frequent visitors. They do this with specialised stinger cells on their tentacles which fire out tiny envenomated harpoons at incredible speed. Virtually all jellyfish can sting to some degree. ![]() Jellyfish Portuguese Man o’ War photo: Jannaraabe / License There have been at least two other attacks over the last several years 7. Whilst rare this is not the only documented fox attack. Whilst the injuries didn’t prove life-threatening it showed that foxes were willing and able to attack humans. The concept of a fox attack was pretty alien to most people until June 2010 when nine-month-old twins were savaged by a fox that had crept into their house in London. Now-a-days there are urban foxes the sort of fox that probably doesn’t even know where milk comes from. It used to just be angry chicken farmers or that wonderful upper class British establishment “the hunt”. Foxes, however, often come into contact with humans. The point is though that a badger wouldn’t end up in a room with me as they are shy and retiring creatures. If I had the choice of being locked in a room with an angry badger or an angry fox I’d take the fox any day. Given the fact all the big wild animals were pretty much wiped out by hunting we’re only left with the fox and badger as wild carnivores. As well as a painful bite there can be a few system-wide symptoms like feeling unwell and even heart palpitations. It’s related to the notorious Black Widow spiders and is kind of a watered down version. This is the most venomous British spider and is becoming increasingly common. Anyone in the UK who hasn’t been living under a rock will probably have heard of the False Widow spider ( Steatoda nobilis). The severity varies from barely noticeable and a bit itchy to about as bad as a wasp sting. There are around 15 British spiders that are on record as having bitten anyone. But, that isn’t to say we don’t have a fair few eight-legged critters that are capable of giving a quite nasty nip. In fact there isn’t a single record of anyone dying from a spider bite in Britain. Unlike Australia, for example, the UK is not known for its plethora of deadly biting spiders. With those credentials I figured I had to include the killer whale on this list – even though you are much more likely to be chased by a seal. More commonly they prey on seals and sea lions which they kill with a headbut or a blow from the tail. They have been known to take on sperm whales, blue whales and even great white sharks which they dispatch with little trouble. Now, I know there aren’t any recorded unprovoked killer whale attacks but imagine if one of these monsters did turn bad…Īt up to 35 ft (10m) in length, weighing 10 tons and capable of swimming nearly 40 mph (60 km/h) the killer whale has little trouble tackling any size of prey. ![]() ![]() They are also known to commonly frequent the waters around the UK. Maybe this shouldn’t be on the list but then again this is possibly the most powerful predator on the planet. Rather than focus on only wild animals I decided to just look at the figures and choose the animals found in Britain that were most likely to cause death or injury. Given that there aren’t that many animals that would normally be considered deadly it took a bit of head scratching to come up with this list. That was made sure of in Medieval times when all the wolves, bears, wild boars and man-eating hedgehogs were hunted to extinction. Generally speaking there isn’t much in the way of animals that presents any danger to humans. When dangerous wild animals are mentioned most people don’t think of the UK.
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