Buzz
Humans have reigned at the top of the food chain for ages, and it's a rare event for animals to cause human fatalities nowadays. However, every so often, nature takes an unexpected turn in ways that are either heartbreaking... or downright strange.
10. The Mosquito, The Pharaoh, and The Razor Blade
George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, was an English nobleman during the early 1900s. Though initially focused on breeding and racing horses, his greatest contribution came in the field of Egyptology.
In 1906, he began his own excavations at Thebes but soon realized the need for expert supervision. This led him to partner with archaeologist Howard Carter, and together, they published an account of their work in 1912. Their progress was interrupted by World War I, but in 1922, Carter made a historic discovery: the untouched tomb of Tutankhamun.
Having invested a significant amount of money into the project, Carnarvon was understandably overjoyed and traveled from England to assist Carter in opening the tomb. The following year, their discovery was showcased to a distinguished audience of royalty, dignitaries, and journalists, all eager for some uplifting news after the horrors of World War I and the Spanish flu. But tragically, just two months later, Carnarvon passed away.
One day while shaving, Carnarvon accidentally nicked a mosquito bite on his face. This led to a blood infection, followed by pneumonia. The illness spread to both lungs, and the earl died on April 5, 1923. His death sparked strange rumors, with some claiming that all the lights in Cairo flickered at the exact moment he passed away. Others suggested that King Tut had a similar wound on his cheek. The notion of a curse was even supported by author Arthur Conan Doyle, who was then in his “fairies are real” phase.
In the following 24 years, 13 individuals connected to the excavation met their end, including Carter. The archaeologist died of lymphoma in 1939, further fueling the belief in the so-called curse. However, it’s important to note that these deaths were a small fraction of those involved in the dig, and the average age at death for those on Carter’s team was 73.
9. Death by Piranha
Though piranhas are often portrayed as fearsome predators in horror films, actual attacks on humans are quite uncommon. Fatal encounters are even rarer, with most incidents resulting in little more than minor injuries or, at worst, the loss of a finger.
Moreover, piranhas usually attack when they are attracted to the area by humans gutting fish or vacationers spilling food into the water. Occasionally, they may bite if they feel threatened. The largest piranha attack in recent memory occurred in Argentina, where 70 swimmers were injured after unwittingly entering piranha mating grounds and provoking a brief yet aggressive reaction.
In other words, for piranhas to kill a human, a very specific set of circumstances is required. One such instance occurred in December 2011, when an 18-year-old Bolivian fisherman, intoxicated and in a fit of despair, jumped into a river and allegedly made the fateful plunge. However, even in this case, the man died from blood loss, and the feared piranhas did not consume him whole.
8. Britain’s First Tiger-Related Death
In 2007, the BBC held a poll to determine Britain’s most unusual gravestones. The winner was Sarah Johnson’s, a woman who died from dropsy in 1819. Following her death, her doctors funded an elaborate gravestone that not only detailed her treatment (including the amount of fluid drained from her body) but also served as an extravagant advertisement for their medical services.
Among the runners-up was the tomb of Hannah Twynnoy, a 33-year-old woman who was fatally mauled by a tiger in 1703. Her gravestone, located in Malmesbury, bears the following inscription:
In bloom of Life She’s snatched from hence. She had no room To make defence. For Tyger fierce Took Life away. And here she lies In a bed of Clay Until the Resurrection Day.
It seems a traveling circus had set up camp in town, and their tiger was housed at the tavern where Twynnoy might have worked as a barmaid. She enjoyed provoking the animal, disregarding the warnings from its keeper. Eventually, the tiger either escaped or grabbed hold of her gown before ripping her apart. Interestingly, the tavern was named the White Lion, which is a curious coincidence.
But Twynnoy’s story doesn’t end there. Her funeral was unexpectedly lavish, leading some to speculate she had been involved in an affair with a local nobleman. Over time, a road was named in her honor, and on the 300th anniversary of her death in 2003, all the local girls named Hannah placed flowers on her grave.
7. Devoured by Dogs While Covered in Cow Dung
Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who earned some rather peculiar nicknames. He was referred to as “the obscure” due to his enigmatic teachings and “the weeping philosopher” because of his melancholic nature. Today, he’s most famous for stating, “You cannot step in the same river twice.” This refers to the fact that water is constantly flowing, meaning that when you step into the river a second time, the water has already changed.
As for the rather dubious story of his death... well, it’s just bizarre. Heraclitus allegedly became such a recluse that he withdrew into the mountains, living off grass and herbs. This insufficient diet led to dropsy, and he returned to civilization in search of a cure. The supposed remedy involved covering himself in cow dung to draw out the “bad humors” from his body.
Now, things take a strange turn. There are three distinct versions of how he met his end. In one account, he drowns beneath all the wet dung. In another, he’s baked alive by the sun as he lies in the heat, trying to dry the cow manure. The third version suggests that the dung made him so unrecognizable that he was consumed by a pack of dogs.
This final version raises a number of curious questions. For one, do dogs really like to eat cow dung? Of course, it’s unlikely that things happened exactly this way, but the story of his death does tie back to Heraclitus’s teachings in interesting ways. For instance, he once said, “Corpses are more worthy to be thrown out than dung.” Heraclitus also had a strong dislike for doctors, so dying as a result of his strange “cure” almost seems like a sarcastic twist of fate.
One of his other sayings was, “Dogs bark at those they don’t know.” This could be extended to dogs devouring someone they don’t recognize simply because he made the confounding choice to cover himself in feces. Being torn apart by dogs was also a punishment often associated with those considered enemies of religion, a label Heraclitus earned due to his opposition to idol worship and the use of blood in purification rituals. His open disdain for humanity meant he had many adversaries who might distort his teachings when recounting his death.
6. Killed By A Goat’s Horns
Robert Boardman, a 63-year-old hiker with extensive experience, was trekking through Washington’s Olympic National Park in October 2010. Accompanied by his wife and a friend, he encountered an unusually aggressive goat. Boardman instructed his companions to continue ahead while he dealt with the animal, attempting to shoo it away.
Upon hearing his screams, his wife and friend rushed back.
When they arrived, they discovered the goat had gored Boardman’s leg. The animal stood over his body for nearly an hour before being driven off with a barrage of rocks. Sadly, despite being airlifted to a hospital, it was too late to save him.
Park rangers eventually tracked down and killed the blood-soaked goat, which had gained a reputation for its aggressive behavior. They also posted signs advising hikers to stay at least 30 meters (100 feet) away from wildlife. Reports later suggested that the rangers had “hazed” the goat, attempting to make it fearful of humans by shooting it with bean bags and pelting it with rocks.
Some argue that human intervention in nature is to blame. The goats were originally introduced to the region in the 1920s to provide hunters with new prey. Once hunting was prohibited, their population grew to over 300, and their constant interaction with people made them unafraid of humans. (It didn’t help that some hikers fed them.) The wife of the deceased later sued the park, but she lost the case.
5. The Herpetologist Who Accidentally Documented His Own Death
Karl P. Schmidt, a renowned herpetologist at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, was brought a snake for identification in September 1957. Recognizing it as a boomslang, a venomous snake from sub-Saharan Africa, Schmidt sought confirmation by removing the snake from its bag for a closer inspection—and was bitten on the thumb.
This turned out to be unfortunate for Schmidt. The boomslang is a rear-fanged snake, meaning its fangs are located toward the back of its mouth. To inject venom, the snake must open its mouth wide. As a result, it’s extremely difficult for a boomslang to bite a person, and in 1957, many scientists considered the snake to be harmless due to this unique anatomy.
Naturally, Schmidt wasn’t overly concerned about the bite and simply returned home. However, he soon realized that this incident might provide him with valuable firsthand experience of the effects of boomslang venom, so he began tracking his symptoms. These escalated from nausea to chills, vomiting, and blood in his urine. Still, Schmidt seemed largely unfazed in his notes. In one journal entry, he wrote:
September 26. 6.30 AM: Temperature 98.2 [36.7 °C]. Ate cereal and poached eggs on toast with apple sauce and coffee for breakfast. No urine, though about an ounce or so of blood appears every three hours. Mouth and nose continue to bleed, but not excessively.
Soon after this note, Schmidt lost consciousness. When a doctor arrived, he found the herpetologist soaked in sweat. Despite attempts to revive him during his transfer to the hospital, Schmidt was declared dead upon arrival. The immediate cause of death was respiratory failure, and an autopsy later revealed extensive bleeding from the lungs, eyes, heart, kidneys, and brain.
Since Schmidt’s passing, there have been at least seven confirmed fatalities from boomslang bites, and the snake is now regarded as one of the deadliest reptiles in Africa.
4. Suicide By White Tiger
Contrary to popular belief, white tigers aren’t a separate species but rather part of the Bengal tiger subspecies, distinguished only by a rare genetic mutation. The widespread display of these tigers in zoos has sparked ethical debates, as their existence largely stems from harmful inbreeding. Most white tigers are descendants of a single individual captured in 1951, which has led to a troubling array of physical deformities. Despite these concerns, white tigers remain highly popular, including the trio once housed at the Singapore Zoo.
In November 2008, Nordin Bin Montong, a cleaner at the Singapore Zoo, displayed increasingly erratic behavior. He was seen shouting, tossing objects, and even telling coworkers, “Goodbye, you won’t be seeing me again.” Later, during his lunch break, Nordin jumped into the white tiger enclosure and waded through the moat, still holding his mop and bucket. The largest of the tigers attacked his face, causing Nordin to collapse into a fetal position.
At that point, the tigers began mauling him.
Panicked visitors to the zoo threw rocks in an attempt to distract the tigers. Eventually, the big cats were lured back into their pens. Once they were confined, zoo staff rushed in to assist the injured man. Despite the efforts of the zoo’s vets, who tended to Nordin while waiting for an ambulance, he was tragically pronounced dead by paramedics.
3. Falling Cows
In July 2013, Joao Maria de Souza, a Brazilian man, was lying in bed with his wife in Caratinga when the unimaginable happened—a 1.5-ton cow fell through their roof. The cow, which had been grazing on a hill near their home, accidentally stepped on the fragile corrugated roof. The unfortunate animal plummeted 2.4 meters (8 feet) and landed directly on top of de Souza as he slept.
Initially, de Souza appeared to be fine. Though he had a broken leg, he was conscious and able to speak. Tragically, he succumbed to internal bleeding while awaiting medical attention. His family blamed the prolonged wait for his death, and his heartbroken mother commented to the media, “I didn’t raise my son to be killed by a falling cow.” Thankfully, de Souza’s wife emerged unscathed, as did the cow.
What’s even more bizarre is that this was the third such incident in the area in just three years. This becomes a bit more understandable when considering that the region is known for its cattle farming. The first incident involved a cow falling into an empty house, and the second nearly saw a baby and young child crushed by another falling cow.
2. Drunk Chimpanzees Named After Iraqi Dictators
Chimpanzees, as our closest living relatives, certainly share some of humanity's more aggressive tendencies. These include territorial disputes and violent “wars” between neighboring chimp groups, such as those documented by the renowned researcher Jane Goodall in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. More recently, there has been a violent, decade-long struggle in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Given this violent nature, it’s not entirely shocking that chimps have, at times, killed humans.
Chimpanzees tend to target the vulnerable, often focusing on children. In Gombe, a chimp named Frodo notoriously killed and ate a 14-month-old child in 2002. Meanwhile, in Kibale, the mid-to-late 1990s saw the rise of a particularly notorious chimp named Saddam, named after the infamous Iraqi leader. Saddam, a resourceful loner, lost his original group to poaching and deforestation. Over time, he became adept at stealing crops from humans and eventually escalated to snatching children from their mothers’ backs.
Saddam's reign of terror reached its peak in the summer of 1998. During that period, he attacked seven children and killed two. After he murdered an 18-month-old girl, he was tracked down by hunters, surrounded by spear-wielding men, and ultimately shot with a rifle.
There are various theories about why chimpanzees seem to have become increasingly violent and prone to attacking humans in recent years. One theory suggests that habitat destruction and the resulting scarcity of resources may be driving them to more aggressive behavior. Another possibility is that chimps in Uganda have been engaging with illegal alcohol brewing operations, leading them to drink fermented beverages, which in turn may be making them more prone to violent outbursts.
1. Head Trauma By Flying Stingray
Fatal stingray attacks on humans are extremely rare. When they do occur, they are typically caused by the barb on the tail, which contains venom in certain species. This was the case in the most well-known stingray death, that of Australian conservationist Steve Irwin. Irwin tragically bled to death after being pierced in the chest by the stingray’s barb in 2006. It’s likely that the stingray attacked him because it mistook him for a predatory shark.
Just a month after Irwin's death, a Florida man in his 80s narrowly avoided death when a spotted eagle ray leapt into his boat and nearly impaled him in the chest. This species has a notorious habit of leaping out of the water, though the reason for this behavior is still unclear. Some speculate that it might be an attempt to dislodge parasites.
In one such dramatic incident, a spotted eagle ray collided with Florida boater Judy Kay Zagorski while the animal was leaping. Unlike the previous case, Zagorski was not harmed by the ray’s sting, but instead, the force of the ray's weight, combined with the boat's motion, caused her to fall and hit her head against the deck. Tragically, the impact resulted in her death.
