Dangerous Australian Animals - The Australian Museum

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Snakes, spiders, sharks and other dangerous animals

Dangerous animals are not limited to spiders, snakes and large animals with teeth. Be on the defense when aggressive birds attack. Jellyfish can deliver a painful sting, and other marine animals can kill. Fish are usually seen as a food source, but the stinging stonefish elicits such pain to a person’s body that you may die from shock.

Brown Snakes, Estuarine Crocodiles and White Sharks are formidable predators and pose dangers to humans. But on average, all the people killed each year by snakes, crocodiles and sharks can be counted on just one hand.

Tiny insects like the mosquito, birds, or even fish can pose a much deadlier threat to unknowing humans. The Australian paralysis tick can latch on to humans and is virtually undetectable. It secretes proteins from the tick’s saliva that creates a lethal allergic reaction in humans.

Discover more about what are Australia’s most dangerous animals!

Dangerous Australian animals factsheets

39 Fact Sheets in this section Search all 39 Fact Sheets Keywords:Family:ApidaeArtamidaeAtracidaeBufonidaeCanidaeCarcharhinidaeCasuariidaeChirodropidaeCrocodylidaeCulicidaeDasyatidaeElapidaeFormicidaeIdiopidaeIxodidaeLamnidaeOctopodidaeOrnithorhynchidaePhysaliidaeScolopendridaeScorpaenidaeSynanceiidaeTetraodontidaeTheridiidaeTiphiidaeVombatidaeOrder:AcarinaAnuraAraneaeCarcharhiniformesCarnivoraCrocodyliaDiprotodontiaDipteraHymenopteraLamniformesMonotremataMyliobatiformesOctopodaPasseriformesScolopendromorphaScorpaeniformesSquamataStruthioniformesTetraodontiformesHabitat type:---------MarineTerrestrial & MiscellaneousVegetation Growth Forms Submit

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Worms

The Australian Museum houses an important collection of earthworms, bristle worms and leeches, including an extensive bristle worm collection from Australia and Indo-Pacific. Learn about these resilient creatures that have virtually conquered every habitat on the planet!

Terrestrial InvertebratesPolychaetes Learn more

Plankton

Learn more about the varieties of plankton - phytoplankton, zooplankton and holoplankton - and learn why the Bluewater Zone is so important to the survival of the Great Barrier Reef.

Marine life Read more

Glossary of animal biology terms

A glossary of terms and definitions used in biology and related disciplines such as zoology, zoogeography, palaeontology, animal taxonomy and classification and evolutionary biology.

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Crustaceans

Find out more about crustaceans - crabs, lobsters, prawns, barnacles - and what makes them such interesting creatures. The Australian Museum has a long tradition of studying crustaceans and this is reflected in the extensive Marine Invertebrates collection.

Marine Invertebrates Learn more

Cane Toad

The Cane Toad is tough and adaptable, as well as being poisonous throughout its life cycle, and has few predators in Australia.

Rhinella marina Learn more

Sea squirts and sea tulips

Discover sea squirts and sea tulips - with over 80 species in Sydney alone. The Australian Museum's Marine Invertebrate collection houses more than 1600 urochordates (predominantly ascidian) lots, mainly from Australia and Antarctica.

Marine life Learn more

Australia's native frogs

More than 240 species of frog have been discovered in Australia! Explore our frog factsheets about learn more about our native amphibians.

Find out more

Fishes

Fishes are very diverse and have a range of body sizes from the massive whale shark down to the smallest fish under a centimetre in length.

Factsheets Learn more

Insects

Explore the fascinating world of insects from beautiful butterflies to creepy crawly cockroaches!

Entomology Learn more

Sponges

Sponges are simple colonial animals. They have no real organs and their body tissue is made up of fibre-like protein, which is just like a bath sponge.

Read more

Centipedes and millipedes

Step into the multi-legged world of these crawling creatures and learn how important they are to our environment.

Myriapods More details

Thylacine

What is a thylacine? Why did it become extinct?

Tasmanian Tiger Extinct animals Find out more You have reached the end of the main content. Go back to start of main content Go back to top of page Back to top You have reached the end of the page. Thank you for reading. Website Navigation Dialog Modal

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The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands.

Image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden

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