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Subjective
HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Animals
Hey kids, remember that scary part in Finding Nemo? Well, fish like that are really out there.

Some animals just make anything better. Others, make anything scary.

TV tropes would like to remind you that the animals listed are just that, animals, not horrible monsters that should be killed with fire. They are also not really after your blood. Except for the blood sucking ones.

Note to All Tropers: Enough with the side conversations on this page, take it to the discussion boards. And make sure your entry isn't already here before you add: there's already a lot of bugs, for instance.

See also Everythings Worse With Bears. And sharks.
  • This dog◊.
    • YMMV because this troper just started laughing her ass off upon seeing that picture.
    • That dog died a few years go. It was blind for quite some time; the joke was that it got its sight back, looked in a mirror and dropped dead of shock.
  • Earthworms and parasitic tapeworms (and hookworms). This troper can't even look at them prior to screaming and running away.
  • Three Words: Human Botfly Larvae.
  • Yuck, what a thick, puffy tongue this fish has... Wait, it's got beady little eyes! OHMYGODTHATSNOTATONGUE!
    • And then there's this little guy... "Let's go swimming. I insist."
    • Also, real-life Xenomorphs. Sweet dreams!
    • think about it this way. On the wiki page, it listed fictional parasitic insects, including little old Uroborus and Las Plagas. Imagine what would happen if these guys evolved a little. You have a stomach ache...is it just bad food, or did an enemy dose you with a little...Uroborus.
  • Certain species of snake. Also certain members of the spider family such as Tarantula, black widow, and the trapdoor spider.
  • Scorpions.
    • "ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICAAAAAAANE!!!!" ...Oh, wait, I think you meant this...◊
  • Some creatures that live in the ocean. The king of them all is the great white shark with its Slasher Smile and vicious nature. Then there's piranhas that can render any living creature- even a cow to a skeleton within seconds (Although they can only do this when practically starved to death) They're still fierce scavengers though. Then there's the anglerfish.
    • Great whites hunt like freaking serial killers, according to some recent studies. This just makes them even more terrifying.
      • "Oh the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear/And he shows them pearly white..."
    • On the subject of "Some creatures that live in the ocean," witness this article from The Other Wiki. "The source of the sound remains unknown...it matches the audio profile of a living creature but there is no known animal that could have produced the sound...If the sound did come from an animal, it would reportedly have to be several times the size of the largest known animal on Earth, the Blue Whale." Real-life Cloverfield monster, anyone? Gaaahhhh. This Troper is getting creeped out just posting this.
    • The Cracked article that mentioned the bloop made it Nightmare Retardant for this troper.
  • The things that go on inside you. Also, "Beauty is skin deep" is a horrible lie if you use a microscope.
  • The Candiru. To quote the page on them in That Other Wiki, "the candiru is capable of swimming up the stream of urine in mid-air to a victim standing on shore or a boat". Note to self: when in the Amazon River Basin, pee onto dry land.
    • Somebody didn't read the article all that carefully. The page mentions that, but describes it as a myth. They can and do invade the human urethra, but they can't swim up an airborne stream of urine.
    • I believe it can still get you if you urinate while in the water and swim into, well... the first hole it can find there, causing quite a bit of pain. So it's still pretty scary in that way.
  • In an example that might also count as a Tear Jerker, this troper's mother, who grew up on a farm, once told him a story about a horse had that was abused by its previous owner. This owner had a habit of whipping it in the eye. As a result, the eye was pushed back into the horse's socket. The final clincher is that flies would frequently fly in and out of the socket to feed on it. Please note that this horse was, really, really nice.
  • Have fun reading the Cracked article of The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World.
    • I read it. It's bad enough that I panic at the sight of a tiny ant on my arm or near my foot (even worse was when a cockroach suddenly burst out of a pin-sized hole in the wall) but all that... I whimpered and twitched and my eyes buldged all as I read every little word and viewed each image in the article. To prevent me from shrieking in terror, I did not watch the videos. Why do I punish myself in this manner?!
      • I read it, and distracted myself by singing "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedengfield under my breath. And somehow I managed to convince myself that I'll probably never have the misfortune to meet any of these creatures.
  • Cracked articles, eh? Then we just have to mention 7 Terrifying Giant Versions of Disgusting Critters.
  • Cracked articles just add 13 creatures to nightmare...
  • For this troper it is wasps that give him the heebiejeebies. And also those damn mozzies.
    • Pro-Mole got to hate(and fear) wasps after a Discovery Channel documentary show a kind of wasp that lays its eggs into a cocoon. It's not just standard "larvae-eating-your-insides-alive" cruel, it's practically raping a motionless and defenseless cocoon!
    • Some wasps are even worse. Known as parasitoid wasps, they will find a live caterpillar, temporarily paralyze it, lay eggs inside the body, and allow them to hatch. The larvae will then take control of the caterpillar by devouring unnecessary organs, modifying its glands, and directly manipulating its nervous system. The host is ordered to do nothing but eat and eat until it's ten times the size of a normal caterpillar. After a set amount of time, the larvae mature and then burrow their way out of the still living animal in order to infect new hosts with their own eggs. The caterpillar has been so infected by the wasp's hormones that even as it's dying it's forced to weave the wasps a cocoon and attack any predators who threaten them. If that won't give you cold sweats, nothing will.
      • Yep, parasitic wasps inspired Aliens. Strange but true. Even Darwin was freaked out by them, saying, 'I’m not quite sure I can believe in a benevolent God after studying the life-cycle of this creature.’
      • This traumatized reader will never think of The Very Hungry Caterpillar the same way again.
      • Oh, but it gets better! People all over the world breed these little bastards on special farms and send them out to specially destroy caterpillars that eat timber. That's right. We're endorsing these parasitic monstrosities and having them take out creatures whose only crime was feeding themselves. Do I even need to say it?
    • Meet the Emerald Wasp. It doesn't just knock out a cockroach and put an egg on it; it chemically lobotomizes the roach, remote controls it to its nest, rips off its feelers, and then lays an egg on it.
  • Yep, hornets in Australia too. Helicopter gunships of the insect world, and their reproductive strategy is straight out of Aliens. Even the most diehard arachnophile would be squicked watching a hornet drag a full-size huntsman spider into its burrow. Alive, paralysed and impregnated with hornet eggs.
    • Asian Giant Hornet. It can outrun you. 30 of these can eradicate an entire hive of 30,000 bees. It has flesh-dissolving venom.
  • The stag beetle is so-named for the large, antler-like mandibles posessed by the males of many species. It easily qualifies as nightmare fuel for the same reason. Worse, they're big, some around four inches long. They usually don't harm people, though.
  • An even more horrifying creature with comparatively large jaws is the antlion—if you're an ant, since they're not very big. Adults are relatively unremarkable, dragonfly-like insects, but the young are lethal predators that dig pits in the sand, waiting at bottom of the pit to eat whatever insects fall in with their big jaws. If God wanted to write a horror story and market it towards arthropods, I can think of few better ideas.
    • Playing Sim Ant will put the fear of the antlion into any reasonable gamer. This is a game that includes a spider ten times your size that will chase you down and kill you, and the antlion is still the scariest thing in it.
  • The Pussmoth catterpillar doesn't exactly qualify for T Vtropes' definition of Nightmare Fuel, as in this case, the scary appearance is intentional, but it's too impressive (and funny) not to show here. When threatened, it raises its butt, displaying a rather savage false face.
    • An example of Your Mileage May Vary. There are people who see most insects as beautiful wonders of nature. This troper happens to find some species of insect cute. Like the lady bug.
      • Now think about the fact that the Lady bug is in fact a vicious predator.
      • But still remember that all of man's best friends are the bastard children of far more vicious predators.
    • To this troper some of them look graceful, like fairies with their large eyes, segmented body and delicate translucent wings. Others look like helmeted warriors with strange, shining weapons and armours. This troper likes their robot-like movements and their singleminded instinctual drive. Trapped, poisoned, with half of their body missing they never stop. This troper sees insects a little like a tiny, tiny Fair Folk. They're very alien, but awesome.
    • All this troper could think of while looking at the picture of that caterpillar was "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!!!"
  • Driver ants. These little black ants live in Africa, with colonies of up to 20 million strong...and they eat everything in their path. They are perhaps the only insect that views human beings as prey, and will swarm over, kill and eat human infants in their cribs. In a documentary this troper saw, a group of driver ants attacked a land crab, but couldn't bite through its armor, so they do something that embodies Nightmare Fuel: soldier ants pull open the crab's mouth, allowing workers to climb inside and begin slicing the crab up from inside its mouth and throat. Other soldiers bite into the crab's joints, allowing smaller workers to climb into the wounds and begin cutting out pieces of flesh, essentially eating their way into the crab while it's still alive. In a similar vein, when driver ants do kill humans, the cause of death is usually suffocation...from ants invading the lungs.
    • The world should be very angry and fearful that this troper is an aspiring writer of the horror genre who has taken to writing down inspirations for stories while reading tvtropes...
    • Admittedly, this troper (who wrote the original post) actually thinks driver ants are awesome; the Magnificent Bastards of the insect world.
  • This troper once lived in an area that got a lot of interstate traffic. It was pleasantly mild, and the conditions were ideal for insects from all over the country to get together and breed demon infant spawn from hell. Said offspring would live for about two weeks before Mother Nature recognized these genetic abominations for the bringers of the apocolypse that they were and killed them off. One infestation we had were four inch long flying beetles. With abdomens so heavy that they flew vertically, like helicopters. And were attracted to sound and movement. That would make this whirring sound as they chased you. This troper doesn't like anything invading her personal space without permission and after unsuccessfuly trying to run from one, ended up going bat-shit crazy, beating it to death with a textbook. It took waaaaaay too many whacks.
    • When I read that, I laughed. Does that make me a sociopath?
  • Solifugids, also known as camel spiders, though they aren't spiders. Do I even need to explain this? Possibly the most traumatizing, monstrous arachnids ever, which, given what we know about arachnids in general, says a lot.
  • The goddamn Surinam toad. It's an amphibian that embeds its eggs in its back... and eventually, its young rip themselves fully-formed from their mother's skin. Yeah, it's perfectly natural, but just the thought of it happening to a human being...
    • GREMLINS! YAY!
  • Two Words: Tyrannosaurus rex. To put it bluntly, we're talking about an animal that was 43 feet long, 18 feet tall, weighed 7 tons, and had razor-sharp serrated teeth that could grow to the size of a banana. Oh, and it gets even better. The jaws of a T-rex were strong enough to crush bone and are considered one of the strongest sets of jaws known to ever exist in the animal kingdom (Only the prehistoric fish, Dunkleosteus, had a stronger bite). Be thankful it's extinct.
    • This troper thinks they're the sexiest creatures in the history of the animal kingdom.
    • Oh, ho, so they are, are they? have a gander at this fine specimen of reptilian fauna then!
      • T. Rex definitely was a badass. But it was hardly alone in being Nightmare Fuel Unleaded. See this chart? Yeah, I'm glad those thing's aren't around anymore.
      • Actually there is evidence that the Tyrannosaurus gets even larger than the 43 foot long limit. A new skull was found that was 6.5% larger than Sue, formally the largest T-Rex ever found. Its estimated to be 45 feet long and up to 10-13 tons. Not only that, even 45 feet long may not be the upper limit, there's a very real possiblity that a T-Rex could grow up to 50 feet or more. Oh, and anyone that believes Jack Horner-saying that T-Rex is just a scavenger and not a predator.
  • Komodo Dragons. Septic saliva anyone? The tactic of a komodo dragon is to bite its prey once, then track it until it succumbs to the toxins in its saliva and dies, then it is dinnertime.
    • It gets even better (scarier?). According to some reports they (as the slowly dying animal will probably have attracted other komodo dragons as well) will not necessarily wait till you are dead. Just until you are mostly paralyzed and can't fight back anymore, then they start eating.
    • Better still: The native people of the islands that the dragons call home are known to build their homes on stilts, not because of flooding, but because the Komodo dragons would otherwise eat their children!
    • Everyone, meet Megalania, the gigantic prehistoric cousin of the Komodo Dragon. Again, be thankful its extinct...Or Is It? Yeah...it is....luckily for us.
      • This Troper once went on a trip to a Dragon Island on a tour. A fellow tourist had a nasty cold that resulted in hellish coughs. As soon as he coughed within earshot every single dragon in the vicinity whipped its head around and sized him up. They spot the weak ones in a heartbeat
    • Oh, it's not "septic saliva". Not according to recent findings. These bastards are venomous. (Took longer than usual to find it because the venom was in the saliva, not produced by separate venom sacs like in snakes.)
  • Crocodiles. Damn crocodiles. Nightmarish appearance, fast, invisible in a foot of muddy water. Many varieties consider humans to be prey. They can drag you under the water in about two second and eat you. They are intelligent and can learn human routines. They will wait a week to get a bite of you. Those eyes!
    • It gets better. There once lived a prehistoric crocodile known as Deinosuchus (the name itself means "terrible crocodile") that was estimated to have been between 30 and 50 feet long. Yeah, a crocodile that grew to be the size of a T-rex. Have fun swimming, kids.
  • Marsupial lions. Ice Age Australia's answer to the Sabre-tooth cats. The biggest, Thylacoleo, was about the size of a lion, and could disembowel prey with its claws, and deigned to rip off limbs in favour of snipping them off with its teeth. It also apparently dropped from trees onto its prey. Even scarier, it may still exist.
    • At least they look somewhat cute and cuddly, being cats, still. They aren't as lethal, but having a coconut crab do a paradrop on your head is pretty freakish. Especially if it whacks you with said coconut before hand.
      • They're not cats. A better comparison would be giant killer wombats with sickle clawed thumbs. Yes, that's right, marsupial lions come from the "herbivore" side of the marsupial family tree.
    • This is sounding an awful lot like drop-bears to me.
  • Chimp. Feet. Because they look so much like human hands, but are their feet.
    • Subjective. To me, that's one of the things that makes monkeys so awesome. The real nightmare fuel? Chimps are so close to humans, but they don't fight like we do at all. They put their ridiculous upper arm strength into grappling you so that they can BITE YOUR FACE OFF. No punching, no kicking, they just throw themselves at you, latch on and chomp away.
    • That part also is subjective, since it's easier to counter. Unless, of course, y'know, you weren't EXPECTING that to happen. Then it's pretty brick-shitty.
    • Feet?! Hell, Chimpanzees are vicious little bastards! Do y'all remember that poor woman who got her face ripped off by her "Helper monkey"? I'd rather be locked in a tiger cage than have to spend five minutes alone with a chimp!
    • Watch or read anything about Chimpanzees hunting. Yes, they, like humans, are omnivores, and they are effing BRUTAL about it.
    • APE, damnit.
    • Chimpanzees will hunt other smaller primates/each other for fun. Sometimes for meat. At least bonobos ("pygmy chimpanzees") will just hump your leg when they get pissed off.
  • The Palisades Rathouse might qualify as nightmare fuel. Incidentally it also provides two examples of the Crazy Cat Lady trope who have obsessed over a different animal...
  • The solenodon◊, a relative of the mole and shrew, can be quite creepy◊ or unsettling◊. That is, until you see the cuban◊ variety◊. Should I add that all solenodons have a poisonous bite?
    • This Troper must be weird. That thing is actually kinda cute with those tiny, beady little eyes. Not that I'm dumb enough to try and pet one, but it's hardly "unsettling". Heck, the cuban one looks so much like a cartoon character that I can't help but find it funny.
    • It's The Sneak!
  • Sea urchins. Just ... motherfarking sea urchins. They are living, breathing balls of spines which live on the ocean floor. Many of them live close to the shore and it's hard to see underwater, so inevitably some unlucky beachgoers will end up stepping on one. This results in a badly injured foot and a visit to the hospital.
    • Hey, just imagine if some wacky mad scientists gave them brains...and a hatred of humanity! TRIBBLES OF DOOOOOOOOOOM. Though honestly death-by-urchin can very easily also extend into ridiculous Narm.
  • Jaguars. They're both awesome and freaky because they kill their prey by biting through its skull. Their jaws are powerful enough to crack open a glyptodon's skull. And for those of you who don't know paleontology, glyptodonts are essentially mammalian versions of a panzer tank. Google it and see. Do NOT tick off kitty!
  • Allow me to introduce you to the Dosidicus gigas: the Humboldt squid, growing up to seven feet long and, alone among the invertebrates, hunting prey in packs of as many as 1200 individuals. Their tentacles are lined with teeth, they feed on each other when wounded or frenzied, they are highly aggressive against unfamiliar objects, they attack humans on a regular basis, and their natural habitat ranges from the Tierra del Fuego to coastal California and spreading north. And you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
    • Ocean acidification seems to be killing them off, though.
    • Colossal Squid. They have GIANT HOOKS on their tentacles, which they can rotate 180 degrees. And they are up to 46 feet long.
    • Cephalopods in general. As awesome as this troper thinks they are, they are also damn creepy. They're smart. Really, really smart for invertebrates. Most intelligent creatures are birds and mammals, which are pretty similar to us in terms of body structure and biology. But cephalopods are completely alien. The thougth of somethign like that being as smart as a dog is strange. If they would be sapient, what would they think? Most likely we couldn't comprehend it at all.
      • Weird fact about cephalopods: cuttlefish are exellent at blending into their enviroment by changing their colours to match their background. The thing is, they're also colourblind. How the hell do they know what colour they should change to?
  • Gastric-brooding Frogs. Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Ew.
  • The saga of Rapemouse. If that's not enough, then the various anecdotes of cute animal cannibalism and brutality in the comments will be.
    • Also, the comments mention Reaver Furries, which is about the only thing more nightmare-fuelly than regular Reavers.
  • Elephants. This troper has an awful phobia of elephants. It's not that they could crush your spine as soon as look at you, although they could. It's their rolling tennis-ball eyes. It's their carcasses that you could suffocate inside. It's their gorrammed mythical graveyards. It's their eerie empathy and intelligence. It's their history of going mad under abusive conditions. It's their unearthly trumpeting. There is really nothing about elephants that isn't creepy if you look at it long enough.
    • Played a lot of Dwarf Fortress, have you?
    • And lets not forget their usage in awesomely freakish tribal masks! I'd take a dude in an elephant mask a lot more seriously than one in a jackal mask, wouldn't you? Especially one made from the head of a baby elephant.
  • In a similar vein, whales. Highly intelligent, eerily singing, oft-abused, unfathomably huge mammals, with the bonus of the "dark thing in the water" primal fear thrown in.
    • Don't forget they're essentially 'ocean vacuums,' and though accidental eating of humans are unreported, there still lies the possibility for that unlucky swimmer...
    • Not to mention that if you managed to piss off one of these "gentle giants", and the rare reports from whalers showed it's possible. Moby Dick was based on real incidents of whales striking back. Those ships were devastated.
    • Thank god this one isn't just me. I have never met anybody else who was scared of whales and constantly have to explain it to people who look at me like I'm crazy: They can come at you from ANY DIRECTION and once they do, there's pretty much no escape, and a baleen whale coud eat you without even noticing - the entire whale sequence from Finding Nemo left this troper shaking in her boots.
    • Also, has anybody looked at the shape of a sperm whale's head? There's something terribly wrong with it. Utterly terrifying.
    • It's debated, but most scientists think it would be physically impossible for a baleen whale to swallow a human; it seems their throats are too narrow.
    • even though it is fake It would still scare the tar out of me.
    • There is a whale shark (made of plastic) hanging suspended from the ceiling of the national museum of Wales in Cardiff (there really is, the Incredibly Lame Pun is coincidental). I did not know this when I walked into the door of that exhibit, and dropped bricks. Why do so many museums want to hang plastic whales, whale sharks and *Shudder* Liopleurodons from the bloody ceiling? do they not realize normal human being have a built-in fear to drowning and as a result do not enjoy looking up and realizing that they are standing below a giant sea creature with the ceiling painted to look like the waves seen from below, so very, very, very far above.
    • Allow me to comfort you. I once read an article from a scuba diver who thought he was on the receiving end of a whale shark and was about to get eaten. The bloody thing was swimming right towards him, mouth open. However, it was smart enough to actually swerve around the diver. It cared. Sweet Dreams Fuel.
  • The cuckoo bird. Think about it: this is an animal that slips its own egg into someone else's nest. The baby cuckoo hatches fast, and proceeds to push all other eggs out of the nest, so that the host birds will give it all the food. In human terms, this is like someone leaving a baby in a basket on your doorstep, a baby which proceeds to murder your children so that it will be your only child.
    • Macaulay Culkin?
    • The odd thing is that the mother bird never seems to notice. This may make it better or worse depending on your perspective.
      • That's because their call has evolved to sound like lots of chicks rather than one. The poor mother is duped into thinking she's feeding an entire brood.
      • Sometimes, anyway. Occasionally, the father and mother stop feeding it and wait for it to die. Then a bunch of adult cuckoos come to the nest, knock out any other babies or eggs, tear the nest apart and attack the parents until they learn to wise up and feed that abnormally large sparrow they've given birth to, capice? Yep, cuckoos have a mafia.
  • Leopards. These cats are like ninjas. They have been know to crawl into houses, kill humans as they sleep, and drag them off into the night- without waking up anyone else% ^âD
  • Despite this troper finding them actually quite awesome, he's fairly certain anyone afraid of creepy-crawlies would shit about eighty successive bricks upon encountering a Coconut Crab.◊ In addition to being the largest arthropod on land, they're ludicrously strong. Strong enough to lift 64 pounds and smash coconuts open, in fact. And they can climb trees. They tend to actually shy away from humans, but if you manage to piss one off, chances are you will get hurt. Very, very badly.
    • Ah there we go, I was looking through for this one!
  • Any number of deep-sea creatures could fall under this, really. Let me show you them.
    • Am I the only one who's thoughts of how scary an Anglerfish was changed because of a certain little blond twin?
    • How do you make giant isopods 100000x more scary? Time-lapse photography.
      • I feel this is an unfair bias against deep sea life. For in the end, can we not all gain some wisdom from the noble deep sea anglerfish?
      • Interesting thing about anglerfish. A male or female anglerfish cannot reach maturity on their own; instead, a male (or several), will latch onto the much larger female anglerfish. Pretty much any organ the male has that aren't his reproductive ones atrophy away, and it just becomes a protrusion on the female's body that produces sperm.
  • Just the sight of the naked molerat◊ is typically enough to unnerve people. Did I mention that in order to better navigate in their crowded underground tunnels, they can turn almost entirely around in their own skin?
    • This troper happens to love naked molerats (they're cool as), but she suggests that if you want freaky or scary, Google image 'star-nosed mole'.
    • This troper loves both naked molerats and star-nosed moles. They're so frickin' cute.
  • Mosasaurs. Enormous, carnivorus, aquatic lizards that hunt in packs. Fortunately, they're extinct now, but they were seriously scary.
  • Ever seen a rabbit or guinea pig yawn? One second they're cute, fuzzy herbivores... and the next they're HUGE, ALL-DEVOURING, TOOTHY BLACK HOLES. Then they're cute, fuzzy herbivores again. Pleasant dreams...
    • This troper finds it adorable when her rabbits yawn.
    • Hamster mouths are scary, but the "toothy" part you were describing is the hard palate, not the actual teeth, which are obscured by the tongue and the cheek muscles.
  • A good number of invertebrates fit into this trope. This troper was thoroughly disgusted during an exam in invertebrate taxonomy which involved identifying live specimens. The one that has become burned into the brain was a hideous little asymmetrical thing with ridges going along its twisted curled up body with a number of thin long white tentacles coming out of it in random places. That question was marked wrong because the troper just couldn't bear looking at it long enough to identify it.
    • And then there is the Class Polychaeta, belonging to the annelid worm family. The most notorious of these are the sand worms which burrow through the beaches of many coastlines. Segmented worms, up to 3 metres in length, with little moving bristles on the sides of each of their segments, a pair of large eyes that bulge from its front segment, and large jaws that are capable of nipping off a finger. Among the coastlines that they call home: The one that this troper happens to live near.
      • Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.
  • Megalodon. Prehistoric shark with a mouth a grown man could stand up in. Extrapolating from its fossilized jaws, paleontologists have estimated it to be around 50 feet long. And if that wasn't scary enough, if it was anything like its smaller modern cousin, the Great White Shark, it could breach like a whale. Imagine, if you will, a shark the size of a Greyhound bus taking to the air. Sweet dreams....
    • Of course, the proper Nightmare Retardant for that would be the classic John Barrowman flick Shark Attack 3: Megalodon. Then you will never be able to hear that creature's name without giggling.
    • Speaking of sharks breaching the surface [1]
    • One of the nature channels has recently been airing trailers suggesting that Megalodon might actually still be out there. Think about that for a while.
    • It is this troper's DREAM to one day bring the concept of 'land sharks' to fruition through a combination of genetics and biomechanics. Just because of the awesome FOR SCIENCE! Rule Of Cool factor. And then immediately live in a Don Karnage-y zeppelin.
  • Dromaeosaurs (Better known as "Raptors" to your average person...Ya know, like Velociraptor, Utahraptor, Deinonychus, etc.) are quite terrifying when one thinks about it. Sure, a good number of species are zY7‹e smalles.st, they also have razor-sharp claws and teeth, a pair of huge scythe-like talons on their hind feet, and its been theorized that several species were highly intelligent social predators.
    • Some? Try most. At the very least Deinonychus, the bugger who inspired the monsterous raptors of Jurassic Park, hunted in packs. And while many people consider dinosaurs to be less bad ass with feathers, well, there is a little something called Wing-Assisted-Incline-Flight or something. Quails use it. It allows them to run up straight inclines. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Spider-Raptor.
      • Speaking of extinct, feathery deathbringers, let me introduce you to the Terror Birds. Basically like a Chocobo except they actually existed. And could probobly rip apart anything they damn well wanted to.
      • Based on fossil evidence, this is Nightmare Fuel Unleaded: Terror Birds or some other large bird (think about it: something that big and flying) have left marks in primitive human skulls. They bit your cranium off and fed on your brains first.
      • Terror birds couldn't fly. They were too heavy.
  • Sea Scorpions. Can you imagine an amphibious scorpion the size of a crocodile? This Troper can't without getting the willies.
  • The Irukandji Jellyfish, the most deadly jellyfish in the world. Just one brush with this thing will leave you reeling with the effects of Irukandji syndrome, a horrific condition that leaves you suffering not only every unpleasant symptom under the sun, but even a feeling of impending doom so bad that some patients are so certain they're going to die they ask the doctors to kill them to get it over with. And the worst part? THEY'RE SO RIDICULOUSLY TINY THEY'RE PRACTICALLY INVISIBLE.◊
    • Not quite the deadliest though, some other jellies have stings that can kill an adult in a matter of hours. Irukandji is generally not lethal.
      • No, they'll just make you wish you they were. "Every unpleasant symptom under the sun" includes excruciating pain in various parts of the body, and wikipedia sez: "There is no known antidote for venom that has already entered the body. Morphine will not help reduce the pain." FUCK YOU, AUSTRALIA! D:
  • COCKROACH.
    • They don't do ANYTHING, except spread diseases, and be creepy. And live without heads.
      • Cockroaches do not spread disease. Even the board of health admits there's no proven case of a human contracting any disease from them. They constantly groom themselves and germs don't even stick to them easily. Furthermore, of the 4,000 cockroach species known to man, barely a dozen have the capacity to become household pests, they are highly beneficial in nature, and even the "pest" species only thrive in our homes because they originally adapted to be our helpful symbiotes, cleaning up after us and eating toxic molds. I adore roaches, and I'll defend them at every single opportunity. Fear and hatred of roaches is, in fact, a relatively recent phenomenon and restricted to just a few areas of the world. Many cultures find them endearing, and even English-speaking countries once considered them good luck.
      • I believe the phrase you're looking for is "They don't do anything for ME".
    • Roaches spread diseases yes, but at least it's not intentional. I can give them that. One hopes that scientist with the giganto bug-fryer laser manages to take out flies and mosquitoes forever and ever though. Not the creepiest, but certainly the most dangerous insects by a long run.
  • This Troper's sister is terrified of Sunfish. And thems is some creepy fish.
    • Why? Sunfish are practically the living definition of Gentle Giant. In some areas they've even become friendly with divers!
      • What, like this?◊ I can never decide if I find them buttrapingly scary or cartoonishly cute.
  • Have you ever considered how terrifying the world would be if dinosaurs were still alive? Giant, carnivorous lizards preying on our children!
    • Whatever you're thinking of adding to that, trust us; it's not funny.
      • Aww, not even political jokes?
      • Especially those.
  • After reading the entries for ducks in I Am Not Making This Up, Animals, This Tropers childhood versions of Daffy and Donald Duck, from Warner Bros. and Disney respectively, are ruined. I always thought their dickish behaviour and hair-thin tempers were funny. But after reading that male ducks rape females so frequently, an estimated 40% of copulations are forced and females are biologically impaired from reproducing unless under the calmest conditions. They chase girls down and take them on in groups!!! With an understanding of male-female interaction like that I can't watch another cartoon of Donald throwing a tantrum with his girlfriend. Who knew ducks really were THAT much of jerks?!
    • Swans too! If anything swans are worse because they're also territorial. So much for being beautiful and graceful, eh?
      • I found out the hard way that you STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM CYGNETS. My friend once took me out on her family's boat, and we got a little too close to a swan nest. Cue one of the parents flying onto the back of the boat and trying to beat us with its wings. Swans are mean.
  • The cat without a face. Shudder.
    • That is the most horrifying thing I've seen in a long time◊. If I was that cat I would be like "Kill Me!"
      • I agree that it's horrifying, but have a little sympathy. Inside it's a perfectly normal cat that does just fine. Look at the dogs it lives with: They don't care at all; they know what is really important!
      • While looking at this can I have difficulties to believe he was not photoshopped. He just looks like a zombie, up to the glowing eye. But I guess it's not. I wonder what happened to it, maybe sprayed in the face with boiling water or something? Anyways, poor kitty. I'm glad that at least he's not in pain, if what's written on the page is true.
    • Eh, This Troper's reaction is more "poor kitty!" than anything else. She just wants to give the poor baby some love...
    • You say scary, I say sad. This Troper just about cried when she saw a picture of that cat for the first time. Poor Chase... ;_; At least she's happy, and kind of cute in an endearingly horrifying way.
    • While we're at it, take a look at this. Something about cats.
  • Tiger and nurse sharks cannibalise their siblings in the womb, eating their way through until they're the only one. Does anyone else find that absolutely horrifying?
    • Actually sometimes happens with human babies instinctually, though this troper forgets the medical term. Made worse because instead of eating, it's more like ABSORBING.
      • It's a type of chimerism; one fetus does absorb the other.
      • The technical scientific term is Fetus-in-Fetu.
  • Type 'Rat King' into any search engine and prepare to throw up. Seriously.
  • Sphinx cats, e.g. Mr Bigglesworth in Austin Powers. Argh!
  • Pick an Australian wild animal. Any of them. There's a good chance it can maim and/or kill you.
    • Yes, this includes the sheep.
      • There's a reason that Australians find this page midly amusing.
  • Brainworms... just... brainworms...
  • This is a coconut crab...◊. This troper inhabited an island where these things apparently live, but I've never seen one (if I did I would probably be scarred for life.)Here's another for your viewing pleasure◊. Crab meat anyone?
  • Everythings Worse With Bears
  • The sea louse. It reproduces by having a male draging five or so females into a burrow, impregnating them, and the females contain the eggs inside their body, where the larva hatch and eat her from the inside out. As if pregnancy wasn't scary enough!
  • Leucochloridium variae is a parasite that specializes in making Zombie Snails. The Nat Geo clip on You Tube doesn't even come close to some of the more gruesome depictions I've seen of this on some nature shows.
  • Entelodonts. Take a wild boar or a javelina, and give it steroids. A lot of steroids. Enough to make it the size of a bull or rhinoceros. Now, strip off most of its fur, and change its teeth from that of an omnivore into things designed to shear and tear flesh. And take away most of its omnivorous tendencies. Pure carnivore baby. Not to mention that they were the first animals to develop the traditional artiodactyl-style hoof, which made them incredibly fast. Oh yeah, and they ate rhinos on a regular basis.
  • The mouth of the sea lamprey. Some people photoshop these onto various body parts and think that it's FUNNY.
  • Since the sea is really just one giant unexplored part of the earth, we usually find creatures there that seem a little... Off. When this troper was young, he visited a certain beach a low tide. Walking along the seaweed, I saw loads of fishes, shrimps, sea cucumbers, clams and the like trapped in puddles. But then there was this huge rock that seemed out of place. I came closer and saw that it was covered in holes. Then, all of the sudden, these black eyes perched on black stalks came out of the holes and stared at me, then they quickly retreated. To this day, I'm still looking for that rock.
    • Perhaps it was a Stonefish? They're very rock-like, and have protruding black eyes. Deadly venomous, too.
  • Bees and any similar insect (wasps, hornets, etc.). I have been terrified of them since my mother was stung in the armpit while trying to protect me from one. And Africanized (or "killer") bees, previously unable to withstand cooler climates, are now managing to creep farther north as they become more resistant to cold. Sweet mercy, I hope they never make it to Pennsylvania...
    • I'm right there with you, man...it makes me appreciate these 5 degree winters...
  • Three words: Brain eating amoeba.
  • When you know about the ever so infamous toxin, Platypuses (Platypi?) steer right into this trope. That toxin will make you wish you are dead.
    • I think that Cracked.com puts it best: "The platypus is basically Mother Nature's way of saying 'I made this with spare parts I found on the floor and it can STILL FUCKING CRIPPLE YOU.
    • Recently discovered: echidnas are poisonous too, they have venom glands and residual spurs behind their knees. Although I've never heard of anyone being 'stung' by one, they can go into the 'cute, but awful' category too now.
  • A lot of cryptids. Especially the Mothman and the Momo.
  • Sacculina. When it infects a crab, it hooks into its shell and spreads tendrils throughout the body. Then it releases feminising hormones, so that even male crabs act like female ones. Then it basically uses the crab (which is sterilised by this procedure) as a puppet, right down to releasing its own spawn when the crab tries to spread its own offspring. This goes on for the rest of the crab's miserable existence, reduced to basically a puppet of a little blob of flesh descended from a barnacle.
  • The Japanese Giant Spider Crab◊ is the largest of all athropods, with a legspan of 4 meters, weighing up to 20kg and they have a life expectancy of 100 years.
  • How does this section not yet have the golden orb weaver◊ spider? (Warning: click at your own risk.) A spider so large it eats birds. Fortunately, it's toxic it's not fatal to humans, except possibly when seeing one causes a heart attack.
  • Tasmanian DEVILS are called devils for a reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU44KwIfBXM
  • Two Words: Homo Sapiens. They may lack claws or fangs, but they still bite like crazy. And see that dental deposit on their teeth? It's infested with bacteria which you won't want in your blood. If you are unlucky, it will make your bones rot.

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