The topic of big, dangerous animals and the myriad methods they can use to wreck your day are indeed entertaining and unending among hunters.

Of course, any big animal can cause a guy trouble when purposefully interacted with by a human. Even in America, stock and dairy men get killed every year from working with cattle and as for dangerous activities, check out equestrian events of all sorts, from 3-Day to rodeo. I believe they still stand tall as the most dangerous sports in America. I wager to say that as a percentage of interactions AND raw numbers, a guy stands a far greater risk of getting really seriously beatup or killed by working with large stock, particularly horses, than hunting dangerous game. Much is legitimately made about the mishaps and mayhem caused to bush Africans by lion, hippo, etc but really, I suspect the lion's share {pun intended...} of American urbanites have utterly no idea how many serious injuries are caused by big critters every year in the rural parts of our own country. I read somewhere that less than 2% farm anymore. I reckon a guy accepts far more risks entering a corral with an unknown horse than he does trying to shoot a ___________ {you fill in the blank}. Heck, if somebody is really bored with feeling good and decides he wants a big animal to make him ache all over he can spend a week at my place sometime. Have a seat on my mare Dakota while I wad up a big, empty Dorito bag in the near vicinity... I'll make sure to have my wife call 911 before you say "Go".

Diverting back on track, my money is on big bear for being the nastiest critter on earth. I know how much tenacity even the little ones display and I can only imagine what a big one would be like on a really bad day.

Having said that, to paraphrase and agree with Ripp, I suppose the most dangerous critter on earth is the one that makes you hurt personally.