10. Teased: This reason's highest on our list because it's the most preventable. If you tease an animal, you're actively encouraging it to attack you, especially if the animal feels cornered. No mystery here.
9. Awoken While Sleeping: A grumpy animal is an animal that's likely to attack — and few things make an animal grumpier than being aroused while sleeping. It makes sense: when an animal is asleep, it's at its most vulnerable. Waking up in a fury is the animal's way of compensating for letting its guard down.
8. Bothered While Eating: Meals are seldom easy to come by in the wild kingdom, especially for predators and scavengers. A feeding animal has little tolerance for any situation that would cause it to lose its hard-fought prize.
7. Losing a Mating Opportunity: Talk about a reason to be grumpy! Being rejected by a potential mate, or losing a female to an alpha male, is enough to put any animal on edge. The human victim may simply be the scapegoat, or could be seen as another rival or threat to conjugal bliss.
6. Hungry: Animals don't prey on humans as a matter of course, but when things get desperate, food is food. If a prey population diminishes, a predator may turn to whatever's at hand to keep itself alive. Most attacks due to hunger occur in areas where humans have encroached on an animal's habitat. Sometimes though, an animal will take a bite just to see if you're edible (see "attacks, shark").
5. Surprised or Frightened: If an animal is caught by surprised or otherwise frightened, its first instinct may be to lash out. This basic instinct helps create distance between the animal and the intruder, giving it time to assess the situation.
4. Protecting Territory: Many animals are territorial, especially land-based predators. A well-defined territory provides the fittest individuals guaranteed hunting and foraging grounds; a lifeline if you will. These species will defend their territories tooth and nail against any perceived usurper, animal or otherwise.
3. Old, Sick or Injured: Animals that would otherwise never dream of attacking a human may do so out of sheer desperation. Chasing down and ambushing wild prey may no longer be an option for an old, sick or injured animal, so it may turn to atypical but easy meals, such as people.
2. Protecting Young: The golden rule of survival around wild animals is to never, ever, ever get between a mother and her young — or anywhere near her babies, for that matter. The maternal instinct to defend one's offspring is so strong that a protective mother will take on any perceived threat, regardless of the odds of winning the fight. And that definitely includes humans.
1. Feel Threatened: One of the most basic of all emotions is fear. It exists in nearly every animal species. If an animal feels threatened for any reason, its genetically programmed defense mechanisms will kick in and it will do whatever it takes to remove itself from potential danger. Luckily flight is the go-to defense mechanism for most animals. However, depending on the animal and situation, running away may not be the best option. Instead, the animal may strike, bite, battle or tear apart its perceived threat. This is the number one reason why it's important to keep a respectful distance from wild animals that can potentially harm humans — and to never keep them as pets.
