DANGEROUS LOOKING ANIMALS THAT ARE RELATIVELY HARMLESS

GOLIATH BIRDEATER

It’s a spider! Burn it with fire right? Considered the largest spider in the

world, the Goliath Birdeater does have venom but its bite hardly

compares to the sting of a wasp. In fact, their menacing look is way more

dangerous than anything these spiders could do to you.

WHALE SHARK

Talking about outrageous size, the whale shark is the world´s largest

fish reaching a length of almost 13m (over 40ft). In spite of its incredible

proportion these truly are gentle giants. Some young whale

sharks are even known to play with divers.

THORNY DRAGON

This Australian lizard has a terrifying first impression. Armoured with an

array of intimidating spikes, the thorny dragon only grows up to 20cm

(8 inches) and eats ants. Aside from the fact that it will shoot blood at you

from its eyes if threatened, there’s no need to fear this little guy.

CHINESE GIANT SALAMANDER

Reaching a length of up to 1.8m (6ft), the Chinese giant salamander is

the largest amphibian in the world. Despite its scary appearance and size,

it only feeds on insects, frogs, crabs and small fish. Because of

massive over-hunting, this animal is now critically endangered.

VAMPIRE BAT

Vampire bats have a particularly fearsome reputation. It’s true, they

suck blood and only come out at night but they prefer feeding on

cattle and other animals. Human bites are very rare. Needless to say

if the bite does occur, it won´t transform you into anything.

MARINE HATCHETFISH

What looks like someone´s worst nightmare is actually a small 

deep-sea mesopelagic ray-finned fish found in tropical and 

subtropical  waters. Reaching about 12cm (4.7 inch) in length,

this little critter can’t harm anyone.

AYE-AYE

Apart from its disturbingly scary appearance, these little lemurs

native to Madagascar are sometimes also considered death harbingers.

But the fact remains, these nocturnal, fruit-eating primates

pose no danger to humans.

WHIP SCORPION

What looks like a combination between a spider and a scorpion, the

whip scorpion is in the arachnid order similar to true scorpions.

No matter how scary these guys can seem to you (and admittedly they

are indeed scary looking), the fact is they rarely reach more than 3cm

(1.2 inches) in length and have no venom glands. They do however,

spray a combination of acetic acid and caprylic acid when they are

bothered. But this hardly compares to a true scorpion sting.

EUROPEAN YELLOW-TAILED SCORPION

Talking about scorpions, only about 25 out of 1750 known species

have venom capable of killing a human being. Measuring about 4.5cm

(1.8in) in length, the European yellow-tailed scorpion is one the least

harmful to us. Despite its fearsome look, this scorpion´s sting feels

more like a bee´s sting than anything else.