Top 10 Harmless Animals That People Are Scared Of

They say you are what you eat, but you shouldn’t judge an animal by their diet. Vultures are carrion birds, meaning that they almost exclusively feed on dead or injured animals. This specialization has led many cultures to associate them negatively with death, or even opportunism, as vulture is a byword for someone who engages in the latter. In addition, vultures also have large wingspans, which, along with their dietary requirements, cause many to fear them or their depredations upon seeing them. However, unless you’re dead or dying, they’re really nothing to worry about.

Crabs are usually the last thing you’d think to see farther inland, but the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans are home to the biggest land-dwelling arthropod in the world, the terrestrial coconut crab. These enormous crustaceans can be alarming, due to their size and big pincers. However, while their pinch can hurt, they’re not deadly to humans and they are rather slow. True to their name, coconut crabs primarily feed on tropical fruit and nuts, though they’re also known to attack and eat small animals and birds.

Native to western North America, Townsend’s big-eared bats, like most of their fellow bats, are often unfairly maligned by humans due to their depiction in pop culture and their association with night and darkness. These large-eared flying mammals are no bloodsucking fiends however, as they almost exclusively eat moths. Many people also worry that bats carry diseases like rabies, but the percentage of their population to have it is very small, and it's a concern avoided by not letting a bat bite you – which is something you're probably doing right now.

You can’t help whom you’re related to. Milk snakes are a kind of king snake whose bright coloring resembles that of their close relatives, the deadly coral snakes. That's beneficial for them, as it discourages predators. Milk snakes are completely harmless to humans, as it is a constrictor; feeding on small animals and even other snakes. Several mnemonics exist to help people remember the difference between them and coral snakes, such as “red on yellow, kills a fellow; red on black, venom lack.” Even so, this only applies to North American species of the snakes, as other regions have different patterns.

Easily mistaken for a snake, the giant African millipede can grow over a foot long and nearly three inches wide, making it the largest millipede on the planet. While some can find them creepy, they’re actually more crawly. When threatened, these bugs will either curl up in a defensive posture or secrete a liquid that can irritate, but isn’t harmful unless you get it in your mouth or eyes. In fact, some people keep them as pets. The most dangerous thing associated with them is actually the mites that have a parasitic relationship with them, and which can be detrimental to crops.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but for most people, this animal isn't much to behold. The naked mole-rat, which isn’t a mole or a rat, is an African rodent with little hair, teeth outside their mouths, and loose, aged looking skin. While they may look like an unmasked Deadpool, these creatures are rather harmless, social burrowers who spend most of their time underground, making them unlikely to even be seen by humans, much less threaten them. Their bodies are actually quite useful for scientific research though, as they’re highly resistant to cancer and pain... also like Deadpool.

A species of lemur native to Madagascar, the aye-aye is a nocturnal forager with several unusual characteristics that natives find disturbing. Besides its large eyes, which it uses to see at night, the aye-aye also has large, rodent-like teeth; making it hardly something you want to see on a dark evening. Its most distinctive feature though is its thin, hardened middle finger, which it uses to tap on and root inside of trees to locate grubs, like a woodpecker. Locals believe that the aye-aye, and especially its bizarre finger, are bad omens and will often kill them on sight; likely contributing to their endangered status.

When most people think of sharks, they think of the sharp-toothed killers that plagued the Jaws franchise. However, while the dangers of those sharks have been exaggerated, they’re hardly harmless. Not so, in the case of the basking shark. With its enormous size, wide, cavernous mouth, and many rows of teeth, the basking shark can seem intimidating, but it feeds mostly on plankton and is not nearly as aggressive, or even as intelligent, as other sharks. In fact, basking sharks are more in danger from humans than we are from them, as their slow speed and size makes them an easy target for fishers.

Lots of people are afraid of spiders, and arguably the variety that elicits the most disturbing reaction is tarantulas. Their large size, hairy bodies, and venomous bite are all likely factors in their dreaded reputation. While we won’t deny that they can be unnerving, tarantulas have never killed anyone with their bite, except in the case of allergic reactions. We’re also not saying you’d want to get bitten, as it’d definitely hurt, but they’re not as dangerous as pop culture would have us believe. Some people even keep them as pets.

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Rhinoceros Beetle

Camel Cricket [aka Cave or Spider Crickets]


Cockroaches

Nicknamed the devilfish for their devilish horn-like facial fins, manta rays are far from demons. These gentle giants of the sea may have large, intimidating fin spans, but, like basking sharks, they primarily eat plankton, and their size is more of an evolutionary defense from predators than an indicator of danger. Besides their size and “horns,” many people fear manta rays due to their relation to stingrays. However, their fear is misplaced, as manta rays do not share the venom of their fellow rays. All in all, they’re misunderstood and beautiful to watch in motion.