Talk:List of large carnivores known to prey on humans

This article needs serious upgrading. Why are black and brown bear, leopard, tiger, cougar, polar bear and spotted hyena attacks cited with information that say nothing about them being known to prey on humans. For a user who has been here for almost 2 decades, I'm really disappointed. How am I supposed to verify such text. I'm removing text that is wrongly sourced. It's a good topic but a terrible execution. And I would love to see you create talk pages and add their associated WikiProject. I'll see what I can do with this article. Dancing Dollar ^{(let's talk)} 08:12, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Dancing Dollar The first paragraph of the PDF of the source you deleted states "Predation by large carnivores has been reported from several regions and in several species, leopard and spotted hyena in Africa, brown bear black bear polar bear and cougar in North America, brown bear in Russia, and tiger in Asia..." The paragraph includes citations to other papers describing those attacks. The paper goes on to document specific lion attacks. I felt that this summary was an adequate reliable source. Do you disagree? jengod (talk) 12:18, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

@Jengod: Which PDF are you talking about – I didn't see any PDF. Are you talking about this source, cause the sources I removed didn't state Predation by large carnivores has been reported from several regions and in several species, leopard and spotted hyena in Africa, brown bear black bear polar bear and cougar in North America, brown bear in Russia, and tiger in Asia.... I think u should have reused citation 3, because it clarifies the text. Dancing Dollar ^{(let's talk)} 12:42, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

@Dancing Dollar all of the material you removed was cited to

Yamazaki-Bwalya https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC117062

I have added second citations for cougar, lion, leopard and tiger jengod (talk) 13:04, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Right? Coyotes 100% DO NOT prey on humans either. Who edited this nonsense? 2603:8080:2500:29D0:E506:F3AA:1090:398 (talk) 20:38, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Is this list only about mammals or does it include other animals? Thiscouldbeauser (talk) 09:08, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Well I initially made it carnivore (subtype of mammals) bc after reorganizing the animal attacks categories it seemed to me that what people wanted was a resource about "things they were scared were going to eat them" even if as a practical matter cars and food were the most dangerous elements of their lives. More than anything this list is a reaction to [[[List of deadliest animals to humans]], which is exactly right. Parasitic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa and mosquito-borne illness is a problem of massive concern but the average reader finds that answer "deadliest to humans" unsatisfying.

I don't remember exactly why I excluded crocodiles and sharks but I think the idea was that once you dial out the focus lens, you get very quickly onto jellyfish stings and which kind of snapping turtle can bite off your toes and I just wanted to keep it the juvenile territory of "if I'm going about my day, what is big and dangerous in this habitat that I need to be cautious of" and/or "if I have to fight a lion what are my chances?" which, again, is goofy on the face of it but my sense was that we needed something really entry-level.

All that said, I own nothing and control nothing and you should do whatever you think is best for the project and the public. Thanks and cheers. 12:07, 6 April 2023 (UTC) jengod (talk) 12:07, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Hello Jengod, as you are the initiator of this article, I'm speaking directly to you:

• as the page seems to focus on the homonymous order of mammals, shouldn't we instead use the term "carnivorans"? The presence also of the adjective “large” is perhaps not necessary;
• among the other species of this order, are there not reports of fatal attacks/predations in the dog (if we follow the classification from Mammal Diversity Database, Canis familiaris is a different species from the wolf), the Asian black bear, the cheetah, the dhole, the African wild dog or even the wolverine?
• in parallel with species-specific articles, this is perhaps the opportunity to eventually create a "lion attack", whose attacks on humans are probably more notorious than those of coyotes or dingoes.

Ellicrum (talk) 17:53, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Hello! @Ellicrum

• Go for it with carnivorans! I was just trying to keep it colloquial for the popular audience bc I think the reason for this article is that people get scared by stories of beasts eating people out in the wilderness and want to worry recreationally--but science is cool too LOL
• I strongly oppose including domestic dogs on this list because we have a ton of dog attack content and because I think the point of the list is *wild* carnivores not domesticated animals or even "wild animals" in captivity (captivity behaviors being specific to captivity and subject to human influence etc)
• Would be very happy to have reliable sources that report on Asian black bears, cheetahs, dholes, African wolf dogs, wolverines or even weasels killing humans. They weren't excluded for any reason other than I didn't see mention of them in the sources I encountered.
• it would be great if you created lion attack (currently a section redirect)--I think we *used to have a lion attack article but I think it was deleted bc it was determined to be a copyright violation or similar. We do have Human–lion_conflict FWIW

V nice to meet you and ping me with further Qs! jengod (talk) 18:33, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

@Ellicrum another thought: if we find no evidence that a cheetah or a wolverine has ever killed a human, we arguably could add a line to the table to that effect? (There's also the related issue of rabies but never mind that for now.) jengod (talk) 21:40, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you Jengod for your detailed and enthusiastic response. I understand your position for captive and domestic animals, this would potentially deserve an introductory sentence to justify this distinction (the case of the dingo is also quite ambiguous, because it's classified as a dog population for the taxonomic site mentioned above). Not having English as my first language and having difficulty expressing myself with it, I don't prefer to embark on editorial matters, which could be risky. But if there are studies attesting to fatal attacks for the species mentioned, I will report them here with great interest. You are of course free to add an additional line to the table, while avoiding duplicating the content of "man-eater". --Ellicrum (talk) 12:06, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

I don;'t think this list is or should be specific to Carnivora. None of the general references are. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 17:54, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

To my knowledge (and because of the orca attacks article) there is no reliably documented example of an orca eating a human in the wild. As the article mentions that it does not include captive predatory behavior (of which there is some), why is the Orca included in this article? Sontails1234 (talk) 20:37, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Chimpanzee, orca, and wild boar either need to be revised or should be removed. While there have been recorded human-chimpanzee and human-boar conflicts and deaths, neither animal is a predatory species like lions, bears, crocodiles, or wolves. There are also no recorded orca caused deaths in the wild, the only known deaths occurred from individuals in captivity. Edelgardvonhresvelg (talk) 02:58, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Oh agreed. Also this is meant to be limited to order Carnivora but apparently that was disregarded. jengod (talk) 04:29, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

I removed them due to fatalities only happening in captivity (orcas) and not being apex predators (chimpanzee and wild boar). I feel like listing chimpanzees on this list is like listing hippopotamuses or elephants. Yes, there are many cases of elephant and hippopotamus caused deaths, but neither species is predatory. I think that the non-mammalian predators with histories of human predation such as crocodilians, Komo dragons, and sharks can stay, but they need more clarification. Edelgardvonhresvelg (talk) 18:06, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

I don't think this is meant to be specific to Carnivora. That is different from carnivores, and I have removed a mention of Carnivora from the lead. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 17:51, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

Unfortunately, most of the non-Carnivora entries removed by Jengod were unsourced. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 17:57, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

List is missing the reticulated python which has been confirmed to prey on humans since 2017 when a farmer was eaten by a 7 meter reticulated python. The snake was first reported eating a person in the 1600s. Ripsnuss (talk) 19:13, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

Restored. A bunch of people thought this article was meant to be specific to Carnivora, when it wasn't meant to be and shouldn't be. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 17:58, 9 June 2026 (UTC)