The Most Murderous Animal Is?

Environmental & Science Education. STEM, Behavior, Science & Society, Nature, Wildlife, Biodiversity, Nature of Science, History of Science

Ed Hessler 

--Help! Murder! Police!  My wife fell in the grease.  I laughed so hard, I fell in the lard.  Help! Murder! Police! -- Children's rhyme. source not known or is it's regional distribution.

Take a guess one informed by whatever evidence you think it based on before you look at the video below.

In a 4 minute video, The Atlantic science writer Ed Yong, takes viewers through  the complex question of "which animal murders the most?", one based on data.  The obvious answer by many is US? Yong basis his comments on research "looking at the rates of lethal violence across one thousand species" (considerable sample) and them "breaks down the list of the most murder mammals and he explains how humans stack up..

See it here.

And the epigraph? It flashed into my head when I read this story. Perhaps I should have let it flash out.