Most poisonous animals in South Africa. Top 5.

In Australia, just about everything is toxic and deadly. It is home to the worlds only known poisonous mammal, the duck billed platypus, the stupendously lethal box jellyfish and the blue ringed octopus, amongst many, many others.

True Blue Aussies are not going to lose sleep coming to South Africa, but perhaps the British, who’s most poisonous animal is the house cat, may be more tentative.

South Africa has it’s fair share of nasties here are the top 5:

1. The Puff Adder: Short, fat, lazy and venomous, will let you stand right on its belly, then give you a whack in the leg.
2. The Black Mamba, 2nd biggest venomous snake in the world and the fastest moving! Hyper toxic and aggressive.
3. The Cape Cobra, Twitchy venomous and abundant, the most poisonous cobra in Africa.
4. The Button Spider, AKA Black Widow all are poisonous, but the one with the red markings on the bum can be deadly.
5. Parabuthus Granulatus, scorpion, Thin pincers, thick tail. The baddest scorpion on Earth and definitely not a lobster.

In my excursions I have bumped into a few Puff adders, Button spiders and two or three scorpions. We once caught a baby Puff Adder, which I am told are the worst as they have no control over the amount of venom the deliver, so you get it’s full attention so to speak. We took it to the Tygerberg Zoo for safekeeping.

Although these are the most toxic of our pets, they are not necessarily the most dangerous, in the next post I will fill you in on which animals really get the numbers.