The Toll of Tooth and Claw.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue I, 5 July 1902, Page 4

The Toll of Tooth and Claw.

7,700 PEOPLE ARE YEARLY KILLED BY WILD ANIMALS. (From "The Pictorial Magazine.”) Last year, in India, tigers killed 899 people, wolves 338, leopards 327- 1402 more met their deaths by the teeth, horns, or claws of other animals; or

The man-eating -tiger clone disp. -ieof 1.500 persons yearly, heading the list of animals that dine off mankind.

2966 in all. Taking this average for the rest of Asia, the death rate on that continent from animals alone may be put at 4500 a year, of which number tigers are responsible for 1500, wolves for 600, leopards for about 450. Wolves have a far w’der range than leopards.

Lions account for some 600 lives yearly in Africa, other animals for 800, while the toll to jaguars in South America, panthers in North, wolves and other dangerous beasts all over the world may be calculated on a population basis at a further 1800.

But this total of 7700 is only the beginning of lives lost to the forest kings. Cobras and other coiling death

dealers killed 24,621 human beings in India last year, and that despite the fact that rewards were paid for the death of 108,000 reptiles. Snakes, principally cobras, account for a full 35,000 of Asia’s yearly death roll. Africa, the home of +he vipers and hideous puff adder, adds 6000 to this list.

The deaths arising from snake bite in India every year almost pass belief, and in the Asiatic Continent total tc. no less than 35,000. South America comes next. The bush master, and many swamp snakes, besides the giant anaconda, claim their share of lives.

450 deaths are credited to the ferocious leopard in the course of every twelve months. Not less than 2500 South Americans die yearly from snake bite, while

rattlesnake, mocassin, and fer de lance account for another 1500 in the northern half of the continent. Add a further 2000 for the great Polynesian islands, Australia, and Europe, the total yearly loss of life by snakes amounts to 47,000. Wild beasts and snakes between them killed 5,470,000 persons during the Nineteenth Century.

Wolves manage to dispose of 600 persons per annum, a large number of whom are subjects of the Czar.