When someone asks you to name a deadly species in the US, chances are your mind immediately races to that iconic Western movie villain, the rattlesnake. However, with fatal animal encounters on the rise across the country, researchers have now revealed which creature kills the most people , and it doesn’t hiss or rattle. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study authors counted a total of 1,604 animal-related deaths between 2018 and 2023. That equates to an average of 267 per year, though the actual number has risen steadily from 227 in 2018 to 313 in 223.

In other words, deadly run-ins with wildlife increased by 38 percent over this five-year peri

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