It’s not just particular snakes and spiders you have to watch out for! Here are our top ten venomous animals, from surprising sea creatures to primates.

By Leoma Williams

Published: Tuesday, 02 July 2024 at 12:56 PM


In the battleground of nature, many animals have evolved mechanisms to both eat and avoid being eaten. This includes the production of chemical toxins, which may be used to incapacitate prey and make it easier to catch and eat, or to defend themselves from would-be predators.

There is an important distinction between animals who are poisonous and those who are venomous. Poisonous creatures merely secrete these toxins, whereas venomous animals deliver their venom directly using specialised bodyparts. This may be through a bite, a sting, or, as in one case on our list, via specialised ankle spurs!

Here is our expert guide to the most venomous animals, including how dangerous they are, and even what potential good uses their toxins might be put to.

10 most venomous animals

Box jellyfish (including Chironex fleckeri)

Box jellyfish, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. © wildestanimal/Getty

Some consider box jellyfish to be among the most deadly of animals. They have been attributed to many mysterious deaths of swimmers in many parts of the world.

This is because some species produce incredibly strong and overpowering toxins that strike at the heart, nervous system and even skin cells. Death can result very quickly, with some swimmers going into shock and drowning, or dying of heart failure before they can reach the shore.

We named the box jellyfish of the most dangerous animals in the sea

Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum)

The world’s most venomous lizard, the gila monster. © Getty

From the deadliest to perhaps the most painful. The bite of the gila monster, a venomous lizard native to the USA and Mexico, is considered to be the most excruciating of any vertebrate.

One unfortunate journalist who got too close described it as “like hot lava coursing through your veins”. However, despite the pain, no bite has been known to result in a human death. The venom, a fairly mild neurotoxin, is produced in the lizards’ salivary glands. Fascinatingly, scientists have found a hormone in this toxic saliva that can be used to treat type 2 diabetes in humans.

Sydney funnel web spider (Atrax robustus)

Image credit: Getty Images

The gila monster is not the only animal whose venom has medicinal potential in humans. The funnel web spider – one of the world’s deadliest spiders – produces a potent venom that is extremely toxic to humans and other primates, but interestingly harmless to many other animals.

This is because these animals produce antibodies that bind to and neutralise the toxins that, unfortunately, primates cannot. This often deadly venom could however be lifesaving, too. Scientists have discovered that one particular molecule found in the venom could be used as a time-buying heart attack treatment, blocking the ‘cell death message’ and preventing further damage.

Cone snail (including Conus magnus)

Cone snail (Conus striatus), hunting blueband goby (Valenciennea strigata). Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. © Getty

Looking at sea snail shells washed up on the beach, you wouldn’t think a marine snail could be deadly. But cone snails do more than just slither over rocks. One of the most dangerous animals in the sea, they live on the sea bed and hunt fish by sending out a hollow, venom-filled ‘harpoon’, thus immobilising any curious passers-by. The snail then opens up its mouth and sucks its helpless quarry inside, alive and paralysed. Brace yourself:

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