What are the world’s deadliest animals, and can we protect ourselves against them?
One and a half million people are killed by animals every year.
每年有一百五十万人被动物杀死。
Almost one million by other animals, and more than half a million from direct conflict among ourselves.
近一百万是其他动物造成的，超过五十万是我们人类之间的直接冲突造成的。
Almost all of these deaths from other animals are caused by just two types: mosquitoes and snakes.
几乎所有其他动物的死亡都是由两种类型造成的：蚊子和蛇。
In the chart below, we’ve brought together estimates of the number of people killed by different animals.
在下面的图表中，我们汇总了被不同动物杀死的人数的估计值。
These numbers are estimates, and some come with significant uncertainty.
这些数字是估计值，有些数字存在很大的不确定性。
That’s why we’ve published a detailed methodology explaining our sources and how they compare.
这就是为什么我们发布了详细的方法来解释我们的来源以及它们如何进行比较。
Despite this uncertainty, we feel confident about the relative orders of magnitude across different animals.
尽管存在这种不确定性，但我们对不同动物之间的相对数量级充满信心。
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The biggest killers, by far, are mosquitoes.
迄今为止，最大的杀手是蚊子。
They have been one of our biggest threats for millennia , and still kill approximately 760,000 people every year.
几千年来，它们一直是我们最大的威胁之一，每年仍然夺去大约 76 万人的生命。
2 Over 80% of those deaths are the result of malaria , which is transmitted and spread by the Anopheles mosquito.
2 超过 80% 的死亡是由疟疾造成的，疟疾由按蚊传播和传播。
Malaria still kills close to half a million children every year.
疟疾每年仍然夺去近50万儿童的生命。
Another 100,000 people die every year from other mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue fever and yellow fever (spread by the mosquito species Aedes aegypti ) and Japanese encephalitis.
每年还有 10 万人死于其他蚊媒疾病，包括登革热和黄热病（由埃及伊蚊传播）和日本脑炎。
Snakes are one of the most common phobias, and you can see why.
蛇是最常见的恐惧症之一，您可以明白其中的原因。
They are the second largest killers.
他们是第二大杀手。
The death toll from venomous snakes is surprisingly uncertain, as many of these deaths occur in rural areas where death records are often poor.
毒蛇造成的死亡人数令人惊讶地不确定，因为其中许多死亡发生在死亡记录往往较差的农村地区。
3 But the figure is likely to be around 100,000 deaths per year.
3 但每年死亡人数可能约为 100,000 人。
That means snakes kill more than all animals below them on the list combined.
这意味着蛇杀死的动物比名单上所有低于它们的动物的总和还多。
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Most of those remaining deaths are caused by dogs, the animals that humans have grown to love as domesticated pets.
剩下的死亡大部分是由狗造成的，狗是人类逐渐喜爱的家养宠物。
The majority are due to rabies , rather than direct wounds.
大多数是由于狂犬病，而不是直接伤口。
Near the bottom of the list, we reach the animals that dominate our nightmares — sharks and wolves.
在列表的底部附近，我们看到了主宰我们噩梦的动物——鲨鱼和狼。
They make for gripping headlines and blockbuster films .
它们成为扣人心弦的头条新闻和轰动一时的电影。
But in reality, shark and wolf attacks are very rare.
但实际上，鲨鱼和狼的袭击事件非常罕见。
Of course, they don’t kill fewer people because they’re less dangerous.
当然，它们杀死的人并不会因为危险性降低而减少。
We’d rather be locked in a room with a mosquito than a lion.
我们宁愿被锁在有蚊子的房间里，也不愿被锁在有狮子的房间里。
The real difference is exposure: it’s much easier to avoid large predators than it is to avoid disease-carrying insects and parasites.
真正的区别在于暴露：避免大型捕食者比避免携带疾病的昆虫和寄生虫容易得多。
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The good news is that most deaths from animals — especially the largest killers — are preventable.
好消息是，大多数动物死亡——尤其是最大的杀手——是可以预防的。
We have bednets and insecticide sprays to reduce exposure to mosquitoes, and medication to treat malaria if someone does become infected.
我们提供蚊帐和杀虫喷雾，以减少与蚊子的接触，并在有人感染疟疾时提供治疗疟疾的药物。
New techniques, such as the Wolbachia method , have been developed to stop the spread of dengue fever.
沃尔巴克氏菌法等新技术已被开发出来以阻止登革热的传播。
Antivenoms can often save someone from a potentially fatal snakebite.
抗蛇毒血清通常可以使人免受可能致命的蛇咬伤。
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The problem is that not everyone has access to these preventive and treatment methods when they need them.
问题是并不是每个人都能在需要时获得这些预防和治疗方法。
7 If these small killers received the same global attention as large predators, more effort might go into stopping them.
7 如果这些小型杀手得到与大型掠食者同样的全球关注，我们可能会付出更多努力来阻止它们。
That is one reason why these comparisons are useful: as a reminder of what people are actually dying from, and where the most lives could be saved.
这就是这些比较有用的原因之一：提醒人们实际上死于什么，以及哪里可以挽救最多的生命。
In many regions, deaths from mosquitoes have decreased dramatically.
在许多地区，蚊子造成的死亡人数急剧下降。
Malaria was once prevalent in countries that are now free of it .
疟疾曾经在一些国家流行过，但现在已经消灭了疟疾。
If we could achieve this in all parts of the world, the number of deaths caused by other animals would be almost six times smaller.
如果我们能够在世界各地实现这一目标，那么其他动物造成的死亡人数将减少近六倍。
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If we were to also eliminate deaths from snakes through the use of antivenoms and better diagnostics, the death toll would be again reduced by almost two-thirds.
如果我们还通过使用抗蛇毒血清和更好的诊断来消除蛇造成的死亡，死亡人数将再次减少近三分之二。
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If you’re interested in digging deeper, we provide a more detailed methodological document that lays out the uncertainties and sources behind these numbers.
如果您有兴趣深入挖掘，我们提供了更详细的方法文件，其中列出了这些数字背后的不确定性和来源。
Many thanks to Max Roser and Edouard Mathieu for editorial feedback and comments on this article, and Pablo Rosado for technical support.
非常感谢 Max Roser 和 Edouard Mathieu 对本文的编辑反馈和评论，以及 Pablo Rosado 的技术支持。
Malaria has been eliminated from large parts of Europe, the Americas, East Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean.
欧洲、美洲、东亚、澳大利亚和加勒比地区的大部分地区已经消除了疟疾。
The deadly disease transmitted by mosquitoes is one of the leading causes of death in children.
由蚊子传播的致命疾病是儿童死亡的主要原因之一。
How did we eliminate the disease in some world regions and how can we continue progress against malaria?
我们如何在世界一些地区消除这种疾病？我们如何才能在防治疟疾方面继续取得进展？
Neglected tropical diseases affect millions of people despite the existence of cheap interventions to control them.
尽管存在廉价的干预措施来控制热带疾病，但被忽视的热带疾病仍影响着数百万人。
We’ve also rounded these figures to not overstate their accuracy.
我们还对这些数字进行了四舍五入，以免夸大其准确性。
It has often been claimed that “mosquitoes have killed half of the humans who ever lived”.
人们经常声称“蚊子已经杀死了曾经生活过的人类的一半”。
While the exact figure isn’t known, further investigation into the numbers suggests that this is unlikely to be true.
虽然确切的数字尚不清楚，但对这些数字的进一步调查表明这不太可能是真的。
Tim Harford and team covered this on an episode of BBC More or Less .
蒂姆·哈福德 (Tim Harford) 和团队在 BBC More or Less 的一集中对此进行了报道。
What’s undeniable is that they have killed many people through the spread of infectious diseases.
不可否认的是，他们通过传染病的传播杀死了很多人。
Our former colleague, Saloni Dattani, wrote a great article about snakebites in India, and the range of available estimates.
我们的前同事 Saloni Dattani 写了一篇关于印度蛇咬伤事件以及可用估计范围的精彩文章。
This is even true among large animals.
即使在大型动物中也是如此。
Hippos kill far fewer people than elephants or big cats.
河马杀死的人比大象或大型猫科动物少得多。
But among typical safari animals, they actually have the highest chance of killing you in a given encounter.
但在典型的野生动物中，它们实际上在特定的遭遇中杀死你的几率最高。
Their low death toll is simply explained by the fact that humans rarely come into contact with them.
它们的死亡人数之所以如此之低，是因为人类很少与它们接触。
Not all venomous snakes have an effective antivenom, so based on current treatments, many but not all snakebite deaths could potentially be averted.
并非所有毒蛇都具有有效的抗蛇毒血清，因此根据目前的治疗方法，许多但并非全部的蛇咬伤死亡事件是可以避免的。
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全球协调应对被忽视的优先热带疾病的战略：蛇咬伤中毒。
PLoS neglected tropical diseases.
《公共科学图书馆》忽视了热带疾病。
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Snakebite envenoming.
蛇咬伤致中毒。
The Lancet.
柳叶刀。
The death toll from non-human animals was around 920,000.
非人类动物造成的死亡人数约为 920,000 人。
Mosquitoes caused 760,000 of those.
其中 76 万例是由蚊子引起的。
If these dropped to zero, the total would be 160,000, which is 5.8-times smaller.
如果这些数字降至零，总数将为 160,000，即减少 5.8 倍。
Snakebites caused around 100,000 deaths.
蛇咬伤导致约 10 万人死亡。
If the total (after eliminating deaths from mosquitoes) was 160,000, eliminating a further 100,000 would reduce the death toll by almost two-thirds.
如果总数（消除蚊子造成的死亡后）为 16 万只，那么再消除 10 万只将使死亡人数减少近三分之二。
Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations.
我们的文章和数据可视化依赖于许多不同的人和组织的工作。
When citing this article, please also cite the underlying data sources.
引用本文时，请同时注明底层数据来源。
This article can be cited as:
这篇文章可以引用为：
We are a live site and we keep our work maintained.
我们是一个活跃的网站，我们会保持我们的工作。
So our articles are often changed, including the data.
所以我们的文章经常改，包括数据。
You can browse previous versions of this work here.
您可以在此处浏览此作品的先前版本。