17 Deadly Animals

CHAPTER 1 Watch Out! THE WORLD IS A BIG PLACE. AND OFTEN THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN IT AREN'T VERY NICE. Think about it every living thing needs food. Many animals and people only eat plants. But other animals and people eat meat. Big animals eat small animals. Small animals usually eat even smaller animals. But some small animals eat big animals. It's an exciting world, but it isn't safe. Many animals run away from predators all their lives. And when they're not doing that, they're running after their prey. Animals kill for food, but they also kill to stay alive, to stop predators from killing them. In one way or another, most animals are deadly! What about people? Well, we're really deadly. We eat lots of animals and kill others just for fun. Most humans live in towns and cities. We aren't always looking behind us to see if an animal wants an easy meal. We don't have to run from deadly predators every time we walk down the street. But some animals kill people. Why do they do that? Is it because they don't like us? Or because we try to kill them? Or is it because they're HUNGRY?

第一章小心！世界很大。 通常情况下，其中发生的事情都不太好。 想想看，每个生物都需要食物。 许多动物和人只吃植物。 但是其他动物和人吃肉。 大动物吃小动物。 小动物通常吃更小的动物。 但是一些小动物吃大动物。 这是一个令人兴奋的世界，但并不安全。 许多动物一生都在躲避捕食者。 当它们不这么做的时候，它们就会追逐猎物。 动物为了食物而杀戮，但它们也为了生存而杀戮，以阻止捕食者杀死它们。 不管怎样，大多数动物都是致命的！人呢？ 嗯，我们真的是致命的。 我们吃很多动物，杀死其他动物只是为了好玩。 大多数人住在城镇和城市。 我们并不总是回头看动物是否想要轻松的一餐。 我们不必每次走在街上都要躲避致命的捕食者。 但是有些动物会杀人。 他们为什么这么做？是因为他们不喜欢我们吗？ 还是因为我们想杀了他们？ 还是因为他们饿了？

CHAPTER 2 Deadly Animals, Big and Small THERE ARE MANY DEADLY ANIMALS IN THE WORLD, AND THEY KILL IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS! Meet the flying killer: the mosquito! It lives almost everywhere and kills more people than any other animal! Mosquitoes kill more people every five minutes than sharks kill in a whole year. Over 2.7 million people die every year because of this nasty little bug. But how does it kill? Mosquitoes have diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and those diseases can kill. Mosquitoes drink your blood. See that mosquito on your arm? It's putting two tubes into you. One tube takes blood; the other stops your blood from getting dry so it can drink more. Delicious! Feeling hungry? How about some nice fish? When you go to a restaurant in Japan, ask for puffer fish, or fugu in Japanese. Make sure the fugu chef knows what he's doing! This fish is full of poison. One fish can kill 30 people. If the chef doesn't take out the poison, you can die quickly or you can die slowly. It can take 20 minutes or many hours. The poison goes through your body. First, you can't walk. Next, you can't breathe. And then, you're dead. There are no medicines to stop the poison, but sometimes you can stop the poison if you vomit.

世界上有许多致命的动物，它们用许多不同的方法杀人！遇见飞行杀手：蚊子！它几乎生活在任何地方，杀死的人比任何其他动物都多！蚊子每五分钟杀死的人比鲨鱼一整年杀死的人还要多。 每年有超过270万人死于这种讨厌的小虫子。 但它是如何杀人的呢？蚊子携带疟疾和黄热病等疾病，这些疾病可以致命。 蚊子喝你的血。 看到你胳膊上的蚊子了吗？ 它在你体内插了两根管子。 一根管子输血；另一种是防止你的血液变干，这样它就能喝更多的血。 美味!感觉饿了吗? 来点好吃的鱼怎么样？当你去日本的餐馆吃饭时，点河豚，日语叫河豚。 确保河豚厨师知道他在做什么！这条鱼有毒。 一条鱼可以杀死30个人。 如果厨师不把毒药取出来，你可以很快死去，也可以慢慢死去。 这可能需要20分钟或几个小时。 毒液会穿过你的身体。 首先，你不能走路。接下来，你无法呼吸。 然后，你就死了。没有药物可以阻止中毒，但有时如果你呕吐，你可以阻止中毒。

Look at the baby polar bear. Don't you love it? Now look at the photo above. That's the polar bear just a few years later. Polar bears have sharp claws and teeth. They swim and run fast, and they're big. They can be 2.5 meters tall, and some weigh as much as 720 kilograms. That's a lot of bear. Polar bears eat birds, fish, and other sea animals. They live in very cold places, like Alaska, so they don't usually see many humans. But the world is getting warmer. It's harder for bears to find food. So they come nearer to places where people live. Sometimes they're so hungry they kill and eat people. But don't worry! It doesn't happen often. "I can see you with my 24 eyes!" Yes, that's right. Box jellyfish have 24 eyes— six eyes in four places! But their tentacles are what you need to worry about. Tentacles are the things that look like long legs. There are as many as 60 of them on a box jellyfish. And each one has 5,000 ways to sting you. Oh, and kill you. You can't see these jellyfish in water. That's a problem. Swim into a box jellyfish by accident and the tentacles poison you. You now have only about five minutes to say goodbye to your friends and family. These jellyfish are some of the fastest killers on Earth.

看那只北极熊宝宝。 你不喜欢吗？现在看看上面的照片。 这是几年后的北极熊。 北极熊有锋利的爪子和牙齿。 它们游得快，跑得快，而且体型很大。 它们可以有2.5米高，有些重达720公斤。 那是很多熊。北极熊吃鸟、鱼和其他海洋动物。 它们生活在非常寒冷的地方，比如阿拉斯加，所以它们通常不会看到很多人类。 但是世界正在变暖。 熊很难找到食物。 所以它们离人们居住的地方更近。 有时它们太饿了，就会杀人吃人。 不过别担心！这种情况不常发生。 “我能用我的24只眼睛看到你！”是的，没错。 箱形水母有24只眼睛——在四个地方有6只眼睛！但你需要担心的是它们的触手。 触手看起来像长腿。 一只箱形水母身上有多达60个这样的细胞。 每条蛇都有5000种刺痛你的方法。 哦，杀了你。你在水中看不到这些水母。 这是个问题。不小心游进一只箱形水母，它的触须会使你中毒。 你现在只有大约五分钟的时间和你的朋友和家人说再见。 这些水母是地球上最快的杀手之一。

Let's get out of the water and go and see something cute. Here's the slow loris from the jungles of southeast Asia. Look at those big brown eyes! It's almost like a toy bear. What a sweet, friendly little animal. Or is it? The slow loris does an unusual thing. It keeps poison under its arms. Then it takes the poison, puts it in its mouth, and bites you. Bam! You go into shock. That means it's very difficult for you to breathe, and you need a doctor fast. The shock can kill some people. Ah, good! Here's an animal that only eats vegetables. It's a hippo. Hippos eat grass and other plants at night. In the day, they're in the water. They look a little funny, too... until you get close. Did you know hippos kill more people than any other mammal in Africa? Hippos are bad-tempered animals. They don't like it when you get close, especially to their babies. They have long sharp teeth. They're heavy, over 3,000 kilograms! They don't look fast, but they can run 50 kilometers an hour. If a hippo catches you, it isn't funny. It's usually deadly.

让我们离开水，去看一些可爱的东西。 这是东南亚丛林里的懒猴。 看看那双棕色的大眼睛！它几乎就像一只玩具熊。 多么可爱、友好的小动物啊。 是吗？懒猴做了一件不寻常的事。 它把毒药藏在腋下。 然后它吞下毒药，放进嘴里，咬你。 砰!你会休克。这意味着你呼吸非常困难，你需要尽快去看医生。 这种冲击会导致一些人死亡。 啊,很好!这是只吃蔬菜的动物。 它是一只河马。河马在晚上吃草和其他植物。 白天，它们在水里。 它们看起来也有点滑稽…… 直到你靠近。你知道吗，在非洲，河马杀死的人比其他任何哺乳动物都多？ 河马是坏脾气的动物。 他们不喜欢你靠近，尤其是靠近他们的孩子。 它们有又长又尖的牙齿。 它们很重，超过3000公斤！它们看起来并不快，但它们每小时能跑50公里。 如果河马抓住了你，那就不好笑了。 它通常是致命的。

People call the Lonomia caterpillar "the lazy clown" because it looks like a clown and it's slow. Clowns are funny, but these animals can be deadly. Lonomia caterpillars live on trees in the rainforests of South America. The problem is, they're difficult to see. People touch them by accident. Also, they live in groups, so you can touch more than one. These caterpillars have poisonous spikes. It doesn't hurt if you touch a spike, but a day or more later your body starts bleeding inside and outside. That hurts! You're in a lot of pain. Then, important parts of your body stop working. It's time to see a doctor. In January 2013, the people from a village in South Africa went into their houses and didn't come out for a long time. Why? Because 15,000 Nile crocodiles ran away from a crocodile farm. And the people knew that crocodiles are deadly. Nile crocodiles are the biggest crocodiles in Africa about 3.5 to 5 meters long. And they have more than 60 teeth. That's very good for eating meat. They open their mouths, catch an animal like a small hippo (or maybe a human), and take it underwater where it can't breathe. Then dinner's ready!

人们称洛诺米亚毛虫为“懒惰的小丑”，因为它看起来像小丑，而且行动缓慢。 小丑很有趣，但这些动物可能是致命的。 毛虫生活在南美洲热带雨林的树上。 问题是，它们很难被看到。 人们偶然接触到它们。 而且，它们是群居的，所以你可以触摸到不止一只。 这些毛虫有有毒的尖刺。 如果你碰到钉子，它不会痛，但一天或更长时间后，你的身体开始内外出血。 这伤害了!你现在很痛苦。 然后，你身体的重要部位停止工作。 该去看医生了。 2013年1月，来自南非一个村庄的人们走进自己的房子，很长一段时间都没有出来。 为什么?因为一万五千条尼罗鳄从鳄鱼养殖场逃跑了。 人们知道鳄鱼是致命的。 尼罗鳄是非洲最大的鳄鱼，身长约3.5至5米。 它们有60多颗牙齿。 这对吃肉很有好处。 它们张开嘴，抓住像小河马（或者人类）这样的动物，把它带到无法呼吸的水下。 那么晚餐就准备好了！

This colorful animal can be red, blue, yellow, black, or green. It's small, about as long as your little finger, and very cute, too. Meet the poison dart frog. With a name like that, there has to be a problem. Well, yes, it's poisonous. It gets its poison from the bugs it eats. The poison doesn't kill it. The poison stays inside the frog until you touch it. One frog has enough poison to kill ten people. And the doctor can't help. But it's not all bad. Frog poison, like some snake poisons, is a painkiller. People want to use this poison to make medicines. Do you remember getting sick, having a toothache, or feeling hungry? It's no fun, is it? Animals get sick and hungry, too, and sometimes that's why they kill people. In 1898, some workers in Kenya had to build a bridge. For nine months, two African lions called "The Man-eaters of Tsavo" came at night and killed one worker after another. But why? People think the lions were sick and hungry. A disease in Kenya killed the lions' normal prey. One of the lions also had a bad tooth, so it couldn't catch animals so well. People were easy to catch and eat!

这种五颜六色的动物可以是红色、蓝色、黄色、黑色或绿色。 它很小，大约和你的小手指一样长，也很可爱。 来看看毒镖蛙。 有这样的名字，肯定有问题。 嗯，是的，它有毒。 它从它吃的虫子中获取毒液。 毒药不会杀死它。 毒素会留在青蛙体内，直到你接触它。 一只青蛙的毒液足以杀死十个人。 医生也无能为力。 但也不全是坏事。青蛙的毒和某些蛇毒一样，是一种止痛药。 人们想用这种毒药来制造药物。 你是否记得生病、牙痛或感到饥饿？ 一点都不好玩，不是吗？动物也会生病和饥饿，有时这就是它们杀人的原因。 1898年，肯尼亚的一些工人不得不建造一座桥。 九个月来，两只被称为“察沃食人族”的非洲狮在夜间出没，杀死了一个又一个工人。 但是为什么呢?人们认为狮子生病了，饿了。 肯尼亚的一种疾病杀死了狮子的正常猎物。 其中一只狮子也有一颗坏牙，所以它不能很好地捕捉动物。 人们很容易被抓住和吃掉！