The most dangerous animal in NJ is …

Someone decided to take a deep data dive and go through information from the Centers for Disease Control on the most dangerous animal in every state.

The bored folks at shareably.com say they were able to determine which animal was most likely to kill you in all 50 states, but they admit for some states the incidents were so low it’s a bit of a stretch.

Still, once you hear the concept you need to know what’s up in your state.

Some examples. In Alaska you’d have to guess it’s a polar bear, right?

Wrong. Moose.

They say moose cause the most deaths by running into the road and creating traffic tragedies.

Florida? This one is tricky. If you’re thinking alligators I don’t blame you but you’re wrong.

It’s mosquitoes. You know, they’re alive and technically part of the animal kingdom just like we are. They carry disease. Disease kills.

Kansas. I wouldn’t even have a guess. The right answer is domestic cattle. Getting trampled working around cattle apparently happens more often than you’d think.

Hawaii? Easy. Sharks, right?

Yes. Tiger sharks, to be specific. And off the coast of Maui is the deadliest spot.

So with all that said, what would you guess is the deadliest animal in New Jersey? Black bears are rarely aggressive. At least not yet. (Thanks, Gov. Murphy, for that bad decision to stop the bear hunts.)

Deer? Running into the paths of cars? Seems like the best guess.

But here’s where Shareably completely loses me. They claim the most dangerous animal in New Jersey is a coyote.

Come on! Then it turns out at least for New Jersey they weren’t even looking at human deaths.

“New Jersey didn’t have enough animal deaths to be statistically significant, but they do have a growing coyote problem. They breed fast and can live almost anywhere – especially when humans feed them illegally.”

Animal deaths? Did you just switch criteria on us Shareably? The others, like moose running into traffic, were clearly dealing in human deaths, right?

I call foul.

Then there’s this map from wideopencountry.com that shows New Jersey has insufficient data to even determine our most dangerous animal.

Ultimately, anecdotal evidence shows the most dangerous animal in New Jersey is a state worker about to have their pension cut off.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.