The deadliest animal in the United States of America is the only extant member of the genus homo, a creature that is properly known in scientific nomenclature as the homo sapiens. In everyday terms, the homo sapiens often goes by names like Gus and Susan and Carlos and Brenda. Also called the human being, the lethality of the species is enhanced by factors such as the handgun, alcohol, the motor vehicle, or a truly deadly combination of all three.

While the human might be the deadliest and most destructive animal in America, we’re also the ones that write the history books, so we get a pass for the purposes of this article. And besides, there are plenty of other perfectly lethal animals in the United States.

While the top five leading causes of death in the United States are, respectively, heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, accidental death, and stroke, if you go far enough down on the list you’ll find plenty of people who are killed by denizens of the natural world. Be thankful that the modern human lives in a house or apartment building, because out there in the forests are snakes, spiders, wolves, and apes with switchblades. Or… probably not that last one, but that would be pretty lethal.

15. Alligators – America’s Killer Reptile

The American Alligator, or Alligator mississippiensis, has a surprisingly large range, touching every single southern US state with an Atlantic or Gulf coast line except for Virginia. These massive creatures have existed in much their present form for some eight million years, their form comprising bodies that can reach up to sixteen feet in length and weights over 1,300 pounds. There is an average of less than one fatal alligator attack in America each year, but should you face off with one of these creatures in a fight to the death… you’re dead.

14. Cougar – Cute But Will Kill You

Anyone who has ever been confronted with a pissed off house cat will understand that the cougar — AKA the mountain lion — is not to be taken lightly. While that cat that scratched you that time probably weighed twelve or fifteen pounds at most, a cougar can tip the scales at more than 200 pounds. And they can run at speeds greater than fifty miles per hour and jump many times more than their own body lengths. Cougars are stealth hunters, so you probably won’t know one is stalking you until your feel its claws and teeth sink in after a pounce. While only around twenty humans were killed by cougars in the past century, this is another animal with which it’s best to not try your chances.

13. Wild Boar – Hey, Let’s Let Wild Boars Loose, Guys!

Before the later years of the 19th Century, there were no wild boars in America. Then a bunch of rich guys who loved shooting animals thought: “Hey, you guys, let’s let a bunch of those wild boars that are always goring and biting people in Europe and Asia loose here in America so we can shoot them!” And… they did. From a handful of animals released in several states in the late 1800s and early 1900s, today there are huge boar populations in more than forty states. They have bred widely with wild pigs (descended from pigs that escaped from farms) and due to their aggressive nature, these wild hybrid boar-pigs present a serious danger when they confront people. They will usually attack until you are dead or are at least totally incapacitated on the ground.

12. Snakes – Sinking Their Teeth In

The deadliest snakes in the world live on continents separated from America by vast oceans, but just because there are no black mambas and king cobras in the US of A doesn’t mean there aren’t many snakes here that could kill you. From rattlesnakes to coral snakes to the semi-aquatic water moccasin (yes, this one can envenomate you on land and in the water), there are many venomous snakes in this country. Fortunately, there are also lots of facilities that stock anti-venom. Get to one fast enough after a bite, and instead of death you can just enjoy some severe pain and a protracted recovery.

11. Wolves – A Pack of Trouble

Wolves are apex hunters whose deadliness is greatly increased by the fact that they almost always hunt in a pack. That’s how they bring down animals many times larger than their size, including elk, moose, bison, and more. It’s also the reason you need to fear the wolf should you ever be in their territory. Wolves rarely kill humans, as they learn to differentiate between types of prey as they grow up and don’t usually see human beings as a food source. If they do attack, especially in numbers, an unarmed human is pretty much screwed.

10. Moose – Avoid During the Rut. And Other Times, Too.

An adult bull moose can stand seven feet tall at the shoulder and weigh more than 1,500 pounds. They can be aggressive all year round, and especial during the rutting (or mating) season they will readily charge when provoked. Moose annually attack more people in America than bears and wolves combined, though they usually don’t kill the person they charge, being content to knock them over and often add some insults. People are often killed when they strike a moose with their cars, though, as the impact tends to knock the legs from under the towering animals, dropping well over a thousand pounds of moose right onto the passenger cabin.

9. Bears – Not All of Them Are Cuddly

You might have a slightly inaccurate opinion of the wild ursa arctos based on the cuddly teddy bear you know from your bed. In real life, bears are best seen from a great distance, and ideally in photographs taken by other people. Most full-grown grizzly bears, which range across many western states and up into Canada and Alaska, weigh in at around 700 pounds, but occasional massive male grizzlies tipping the scales at 1,500 pounds have been reported. Though the meme about mama bears is entirely accurate. The males may be bigger, but it’s mother bears protecting their cubs who account for more than two thirds of human deaths.

8. Horses – Stay In the Saddle

There are relatively few wild horses in America these days, and those that are out there roaming the plains (or the beaches of the east coast) are quite unlikely to kill a person. But people falling off of domestic horses and/or being trampled by their trusted steeds do die in numbers every year. Around twenty people in America will be killed by horses or accidents directly related to riding a horse each and every year. Here’s one tip that can help: don’t get kicked by a horse.

7. Spiders – Icky and Deadly

There are really only two spiders that can kill you living in the United States of America: the black widow and the brown recluse. And in fact more often than not, a bite from one of these venomous spiders will result in quite a painful injury but not in death. That is, so long as you get prompt medical treatment. A bite sustained out in the wild (or by someone with a compromised immune system) can be very bad news indeed. Spiders are at a disadvantage when it comes to battling humans as, unlike with alligators and bears, you can just crush them. They have the advantage, though, of being able to hide in your shoes. And in your dreams…

6. Great White Sharks – Yes, In America

When you think of a great white shark, you might picture these fearsome beasts plying the waters off of the Australian coast or near the tip of Africa. And yes, there are plenty of great whites there. There are also plenty of great white sharks basically everywhere except for the Arctic circle and in the Southern Ocean. Their range comprises all of coastal America, and they are far and away the deadliest shark in the seas, oceans, or any other body of water anywhere on earth. While they usually prefer to eat seals, you will do in a pinch, so watch out for that.

5. Coyotes – The Great Adapter

Coyotes kill all sorts of animals with great zeal. When haunting in pairs or packs, they can bring down deer, sheep, and even larger prey like bison. On their own, they eat rabbits, rodents, lizards, and more. Coyotes are a good deal smaller than wolves, their closest canine cousin, and don’t traditionally pose a significant threat to humans in most cases. They are steadily becoming more common co-habitants of the cities and suburbs we humans call home, though, and with more proximity come more attacks, especially from rabid coyotes. This highly adaptable animal can be found in every single state save for Hawaii, and you know they’re planning on that, too.

4. Dogs – Yes, Domesticated Dogs

Taken as a simple statistic, the domesticated dog is one of the most deadly animals in America, with more than thirty people being killed by dog attacks in an average year. The stats are skewed, though, based on how many dogs live in America and based on the extremely close proximity they keep to humans, e.g. often in the same damn bed. So in other words, if cougars and snakes and bees lived in our homes with us, they would probably prove more deadly than our best friend.

3. Mosquitoes – Annoying and Deadly

With apologies to the food chain, mosquitoes suck and they should all die. Yes, that would surely have a devastating ripple effect on countless ecosystems and would probably usher in some horrible extinction event but… so be it. Mosquitoes carry a plethora of illnesses that can prove injurious and even deadly to humans, including West Nile Virus, Dengue Fever, and more. And as the recent Zika Virus epidemic has shown, that are always capable off adding new ailments to the catalog of sicknesses they carry around.

2. Bees – Death Swarm

Unless you are allergic to a bee’s sting, a single sting is painful but really more of an annoyance than a death sentence. Now, if you get a few thousand stings in the course of a few minutes as the result of a swarm of killer bees (AKA Africanized bees), that’s a problem. Once provoked, these bees have been known to chase a fleeing human for up to a quarter of a mile, and they tend to deliver ten times the number of stings per attack than the Western honey bee. When attacking in numbers, they can kill horses, so they can kill you, too.

1. Deer – Yeah, they are #1 On The List

Just when you thought Bambi and her family were victims, it turns out they’re evil killer death beasts! Or maybe the more accurate way to put it would be the animal inadvertently responsible for the most humans killed by an animal encounter each year. Deer don’t bite or stab us to death, no, instead they run out in front of our cars, causing us to crash and die. In most cases, it’s a kamikaze mission, with the deer also ending up dead, but they just don’t seem to learn from their deer peers.