Man-eater is a colloquial term for an individual animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behaviour. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has killed in self-defence. However, all three cases (especially the last two) may habituate an animal to eating human flesh or to attacking humans, and may foster the development of man-eating behaviour.
Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet and actively hunt and kill humans. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved tigers, leopards, lions and crocodilians. However, they are by no means the only predators that will attack humans if given the chance; a wide variety of species have also been known to adopt humans as usual prey, including bears, Komodo dragons, and hyenas.
Felids
Tigers
Tigers are recorded to have killed more people than any other big cat, and tigers have been responsible for more human deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal. About 1,000 people were reportedly killed each year in India during the early 1900s, with one individual tiger killing 430 people in India. Tigers killed 129 people in the Sundarbans mangrove forest from 1969â€"71. Unlike leopards and lions, man-eating tigers rarely enter human habitations in order to acquire prey. The majority of victims are reportedly in the tiger's territory when the attack takes place. Additionally, tiger attacks mostly occur during daylight hours, unlike those committed by leopards and lions. The Sundarbans are home to approximately 600 royal Bengal tigers who before modern times used to "regularly kill fifty or sixty people a year". In 2008, a loss of habitat due to the Cyclone Sidr led to an increase in the number of attacks on humans in the Indian side of the Sunderbans, as tigers were crossing over to the Indian side from Bangladesh.
A theory promoted to explain this suggests that since tigers drink fresh water, the salinity of the area waters serve as a destabilizing factor in the diet and life of tigers of Sundarbans, keeping them in constant discomfort and making them extremely aggressive. Other theories include the sharing of their habitat with human beings and the consumption of human corpses during floods.
- Tigers of Chowgarh (1925â€"30)
- Tiger of Mundachipallam
- Tiger of Segur
- Tigress of Champawat (killed in 1907)
- Tigress of Jowlagiri
Lions
Man-eating lions have been recorded to actively enter human villages at night as well as during the day to acquire prey. This greater assertiveness usually makes man-eating lions easier to dispatch than tigers. Lions typically become man-eaters for the same reasons as tigers: starvation, old age and illness, though as with tigers, some man-eaters were reportedly in perfect health.
The lion's proclivity for man-eating has been systematically examined. American and Tanzanian scientists report that man-eating behavior in rural areas of Tanzania increased greatly from 1990 to 2005. At least 563 villagers were attacked and many eaten over this periodâ€"a number far exceeding the more famed "Tsavo" incidents of a century earlier. The incidents occurred near Selous National Park in Rufiji District and in Lindi Province near the Mozambican border. While the expansion of villagers into bush country is one concern, the authors argue that conservation policy must mitigate the danger because, in this case, conservation contributes directly to human deaths. Cases in Lindi have been documented where lions seize humans from the centre of substantial villages. It is estimated that over 250 people are killed by lions every year.
Man-eating lions studies indicate that African lions eat humans as a supplement to other food, not as a last resort.
- Tsavo maneaters (1898)
- Lions of Njombe (1932-1947)
Leopards
Man-eating leopards are a small percentage of all leopards, but have undeniably been a menace in some areas; one leopard in India killed over 200 people. Jim Corbett was noted to have stated that unlike tigers, which usually became man-eaters because of infirmity, leopards more commonly did so after scavenging on human corpses. In the area that Corbett knew well, dead people are usually cremated completely, but when there is a bad disease epidemic, the death rate outruns the supply of cremation pyre wood and people burn the body a little and throw it over the edge of the burning ghat. In Asia, man-eating leopards usually attack at night, and have been reported to break down doors and thatched roofs in order to reach human prey. Attacks in Africa are reported less often, though there have been occasions where attacks occurred in daylight. Both Corbett and Kenneth Anderson have written that hunting the man eating panther presented more challenges than any other animal.
- Leopard of the Central Provinces
- Leopard of Gummalapur
- Leopard of Panar (1907â€"1910)
- Leopard of Rudraprayag
- Leopard of the Yellagiri Hills
- Leopard of Karanja (1990)
Jaguars
Jaguar attacks on humans are rare nowadays. In the past, they were more frequent, at least after the arrival of Conquistadors in the Americas.
Cougars
Due to the expanding human population, cougar ranges increasingly overlap with areas inhabited by humans. Attacks on humans are very rare, as cougar prey recognition is a learned behavior and they do not generally recognize humans as prey. Attacks on people, livestock, and pets may occur when a puma habituates to humans or is in a condition of severe starvation. Attacks are most frequent during late spring and summer, when juvenile cougars leave their mothers and search for new territory.
Primates
The only documented man-eaters among the great apes are humans themselves and common chimpanzees.
Canids
Wolves
Contrasted to other carnivorous mammals known to attack humans for food, the frequency with which wolves have been recorded to kill people is rather low, indicating that, though potentially dangerous, wolves are among the least threatening for their size and predatory potential, except for the dog which poses lethal hazards for reasons other than predation. In the rare cases in which man-eating wolf attacks occur, the majority of victims are children. Habituation is a known factor contributing to some man-eating wolf attacks which results from living close to human habitations, causing wolves to lose their fear of humans and consequently approach too closely, much like urban coyotes. Habituation can also happen when people intentionally encourage wolves to approach them, usually by offering them food, or unintentionally, when people do not sufficiently intimidate them. This is corroborated by accounts demonstrating that wolves in protected areas are more likely to show boldness toward humans than ones in areas where they are actively hunted.
- Beast of Gévaudan
- Kirov wolf attacks
- Wolf of Ansbach
- Wolf of Gysinge
- Wolf of Sarlat
- Wolf of Soissons
- Wolves of Ashta
- Wolves of Turku
- Wolves of Hazaribagh
- Wolves of Paris
- Wolves of Périgord
Dingoes
Attacks on humans by dingoes are rare, with only 3 recorded fatalities in Australia, all of which involved young children. Dingoes are normally shy of humans and avoid encounters with them. The most famous record of a dingo attack was the disappearance of nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain. Her parents reported that they both saw a dingo taking Azaria out of their tent when she and her family were out on a camping trip to Ayers Rock.
Domestic dogs
Much like other large land carnivores, domestic dogs have the power, strength, speed, agility, voraciousness, intelligence, cunning, and bite force of mammalian species generally understood as man-eaters. Add to this the sort of organization that one associates with lions, hyenas, and wolves, and even a pack of small dogs is potentially as lethal as a single large predator. Predatory attacks by dogs (like wolves) on livestock and wildlife larger than humans demonstrate the potential of a dog as a man-eater. A large dog or a pack of dogs of adequate number depending on size of the dogs has the capacity to kill a human even without predatory intent, and most fatal dog attacks do not result from hunger. Self-extrication from a dog attack is extremely difficult. By far the best-behaved of all large predatory land animals except for humans, the dog is the large predatory land animal least likely to kill humans as prey. Pet dogs are ordinarily too well fed to contemplate humans as food, and even strays are likely to find food through scavenging or begging.
Predatory acts by dogs upon humans have occurred, but many such incidents were the result of human misconduct. Guards such as Irma Grese and Kurt Franz often set dogs upon live prisoners in Nazi concentration camps with the dog killing the victim and partially devouring the corpse.
Coyotes
Almost all known predatory coyote attacks on humans have failed. To date, other than the Kelly Keen coyote attack and the Taylor Mitchell coyote attack, all known victims have survived by fighting, fleeing, or being rescued, and only in the later case was the victim partially eaten, although that case occurred in Nova Scotia where the local animals are eastern coyotes (coywolves).
Bears
Polar bears, being almost completely unused to the presence of humans and therefore having no ingrained fear of them, will hunt people for food, though with the right precautions they are easily deterred. Although bears rarely attack humans, bear attacks are often fatal due to the size and immense strength of the giant land and shoreline carnivores. As with dogs, predatory intent is not necessary; territorial disputes and protection of cubs can result in death by bear attack. Truly man-eating bear attacks are uncommon, but are known to occur when the animals are diseased or natural prey is scarce, often leading them to attack and eat anything they are able to kill. In July 2008, dozens of starving bears killed two geologists working at a salmon hatchery in Kamchatka. After the partially eaten remains of the two workers were discovered, authorities responded by dispatching hunters to cull or disperse the bears.
Lone, predatory black bears are responsible for most human attacks in the United States and Canada, according to a study from 2011. Unlike female bears, motivated to attack humans to protect cubs, male black bears actually prey on humans, viewing them as a potential food source.
Though usually shy and cautious animals, Asian black bears are more aggressive toward humans than the brown bears of Eurasia. Brown bears seldom attack humans on sight, and usually avoid people. They are, however, unpredictable in temperament, and will attack if they are surprised or feel threatened. In some areas of India and Burma, sloth bears are more feared than tigers, due to their unpredictable temperament.
- Brown bear of Sankebetsu
- Sloth bear of Mysore
- Timothy Treadwell
- List of fatal bear attacks in North America
Hyenas
Although hyenas readily feed upon human corpses, they are generally very wary of humans and less dangerous than the big cats whose territory overlaps with theirs. Nonetheless, both the spotted hyena and the smaller striped hyena are powerful predators quite capable of killing an adult human, and are known to attack people when food is scarce. Like most predators, hyena attacks tend to target women, children, and infirm men, though both species can and do attack healthy adult males on occasion. The spotted hyena is the more dangerous of the two species, being larger, more predatory, and more aggressive than the striped hyena. The brown hyena and aardwolf are not known to prey on humans.
Suids
Pigs
Although not true carnivores, pigs are competent predators and can kill and eat helpless humans unable to escape them. Numerous animal trials in the Middle Ages involved pigs accused of eating children.
Rodents
Rats
Despite small individual size (usually much smaller than dogs, possibly the smallest animals that can singly kill a person in a predatory attack), rats in large numbers can kill helpless people by eating humans alive. Although the bite of one rat is unlikely to kill a person except through disease, the collective damage of dozens of rats can cause death by shock and damage to vital organs. Although not true carnivores, rats are unfussy eaters and social predators should the opportunity arise.
Rat torture has been used upon political prisoners, and not only in such fiction as Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Reptiles
Crocodiles
Crocodile attacks on people are common in places where crocodiles are native. The saltwater and Nile crocodiles are responsible for more attacks and more deaths than any other wild predator that attacks humans for food. Each year, hundreds of deadly attacks are attributed to the Nile crocodile within sub-Saharan Africa. Because many relatively healthy populations of Nile crocodiles occur in East Africa, their proximity to people living in poverty and/or without infrastructure has made it likely that the Nile crocodile is responsible for more attacks on humans than all other species combined. In Australia crocodiles have also been responsible for several deaths in the tropical north of the country.
- Gustave
- Crocodiles of Ramree Island
- Mugger crocodile
- Nile crocodile
- Saltwater crocodile
Alligators
Despite their manifest ability to kill prey similar to or larger than humans in size and their commonness in an area of dense human settlement (the southeastern United States of America, especially Florida), American alligators rarely prey upon humans. Even so, there have been several notable instances of alligators opportunistically attacking humans, especially the careless, small children, and elderly. Unlike the far-more dangerous saltwater and Nile crocodiles, the majority of alligators avoid contact with humans if possible, especially if they have been hunted. Incidents have happened, and they may not all have been predatory in nature.
Snakes
Only very few species of snakes are physically capable of swallowing an adult human. Although quite a few claims have been made about giant snakes swallowing adult humans, convincing proof has been absent. However, large constricting snakes may sometimes constrict and kill prey that are too large to swallow. Also, multiple cases are documented of medium-sized (3Â m (9.8Â ft) to 4Â m (13Â ft)) captive Burmese pythons constricting and killing humans, including several nonintoxicated, healthy adult men, one of whom was a "student" zookeeper. In the zookeeper case, the python was attempting to swallow the zookeeper's head when other keepers intervened. In addition, at least one Burmese python as small as 2.7Â m (8.9Â ft) constricted and killed an intoxicated adult man.
A large constricting snake may constrict or swallow an infant or a small child, a threat that is legitimate and empirically proven. Cases of python attacks on children have been recorded for the green anaconda, the African rock python, the Burmese python, and possibly the Australian scrub or amethystine python.
In the Philippines, more than a quarter of Aeta men (a modern forest-dwelling hunter-gatherer group) have reported surviving reticulated python predation attempts. Pythons are nonvenomous, ambush predators, and both the Aeta and pythons hunt deer, wild pigs, and monkeys, making them competitors and prey.
The only group of snakes able to eat an adult human being are the largest constrictors (pythons and anacondas, all nonvenomous), which include the largest snakes in the world:
- Green anaconda
- Reticulated python
- Burmese python
- African rock python
- Amethystine python
- Indian python
In 2017 in Indonesia, an adult was discovered inside of a 7 meters long python.
Lizards
Large Komodo dragons are the only known lizard species to occasionally attack and consume humans. Because they live on remote islands, attacks are infrequent and may go unreported. Despite their large size, attacks on people are often unsuccessful and the victims manage to escape (although severe wounds are usually sustained). In most instances, humans consumed by Komodos are corpses dug from shallow graves by the lizards.
Birds
Some evidence supports the contention that the African crowned eagle occasionally views human children as prey, with a witness account of one attack (in which the victim, a seven-year-old boy, survived and the eagle was killed), and the discovery of part of a human child skull in a nest. This would make it the only living bird known to prey on humans.
Some fossil evidence indicates large birds of prey occasionally preyed on prehistoric hominids. The Taung Child, an early human found in Africa, is believed to have been killed by an eagle-like bird similar to the crowned eagle. The extinct Haast's eagle may have preyed on humans in New Zealand, and this conclusion would be consistent with Maori folklore.
Fish
Sharks
Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Even these are unlikely to specifically target humans as prey; much more commonly they are simply indiscriminate and will take any potential meal they happen to come across (as an oceanic whitetip might eat a person floating in the water after a shipwreck), or may bite out of curiosity or mistaken identity (as with a great white shark mistaking a human on a surfboard for its favoured prey, a seal).
Of more than 568 shark species, only four have been involved in a significant number of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white shark, tiger shark, bull shark, and the oceanic whitetip shark. These sharks, being large, powerful predators, may sometimes attack and kill humans; however, they have all been filmed in open water by unprotected divers.
Piranhas
Due to its small size, no individual piranha could ever kill a human even if it can take a painful bite of flesh. The ability of a shoal of piranhas to overwhelm and devour a capybara similar in size to human demonstrates the potential of piranhas as man-eaters.
Some controversy, however, exists over whether and to what degree piranha "attacks" represent true predation as opposed to a violent defence of spawning areas or refuges.
Attacks resulting in deaths have occurred in the Amazon basin. In 2011, a drunk 18-year-old man was attacked and killed in Rosario del Yata, Bolivia. In 2012, a five-year-old Brazilian girl was attacked and killed by a shoal of P. nattereri. Some Brazilian rivers have warning signs about lethal piranhas.
Catfish
Reports have been made of goonch catfish eating humans in the Kali River in India. As seen on River Monsters, the wels catfish, piraÃba, and the candiru-açu have also been known to potentially attack, kill, and eat people.
- Kali River goonch attacks
Grouper
- Goliath groupers are known to stalk and ambush human underwater divers.
Death tolls
Individual notable man-eating animals' death tolls:
- 400â€"980 - Burmese saltwater crocodiles (Ramree, Burma, 19 February 1945)
- 436 â€" Champawat tiger (Nepal/Northern India)
- 400 â€" Leopard of Panar (Northern India)
- 300+ â€" Gustave (crocodile) (Burundi), rumoured
- 150 â€" Leopard of the Central Provinces of India
- 135 â€" Tsavo man-eaters (lions) (Kenya)
- 125+ â€" Leopard of Rudraprayag (India)
- 113 â€" Beast of Gévaudan (France)
- 50+ â€" Tigers of Chowgarh (India)
- 42 â€" Leopard of Gummalapur (India)
- 40 â€" Wolves of Paris (France)
- 22 â€" Kirov wolf attacks (Russia)
- 22 â€" Wolves of Turku (Finland)
- 18 â€" Wolves of Périgord (France)
- 17 â€" Wolves of Ashta (India)
- 15 â€" Tigress of Jowlagiri (Jowlagiri)
- 13 â€" Wolves of Hazaribagh (India)
- 12 â€" Wolf of Gysinge (Sweden) and sloth bear of Mysore (India)
- 7 â€" Tiger of Mundachipallam (South India) and Sankebetsu brown bear incident (Japan)
- 4 â€" Wolf of Soissons (France) and Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 (North New Jersey)
- 3 â€" Leopard of the Yellagiri Hills (India)
- an uncertain number â€" Wolf of Ansbach (Holy Roman Empire)
- an uncertain number -- USS Indianapolis shark attacks (Philippines Sea)
See also
- Malawi terror beast
- Man-eating tree
- Human-wildlife conflict
- Animal attacks
- Damnatio ad bestias an ancient form of execution where condemned prisoners were killed by animals