What are the ten deadliest animals in America?

NORTH, SOUTH, OR CENTRAL?

Do you mean the USA, or the Americas? Are you looking for species specific animals. How do you define deadliest--most deaths per year? most likely to encounter? least chance of survival? Deaths per year is too easy to find on your own. It's far more interesting to assume you are already locked in the jaws/claws/fangs of death, and you are curious about how you will make out. Here's how I think you would fare:

1) Polar Bears are one of the few animals that select, stalk and kill humans for food. If you are under attack, there's no where to run and hide. They can't be lulled by playing dead--because you are much easier to eat once you are dead. They are not trying to scare you away. If you are selected you can't get away; you won't be left to bleed out because they will devour you.

2) American Alligator--Gators may not deliberately select humans as a food souce, but they are opportunistic. You are as good as anything else. If you are squarely attacked by a large gator you will probably not fare well. You can trick a grizzly into letting you alone, you can fight off a shark, you can medicate a snake bite--but you won't escape a gator's grip unless it tears off a limb before it manages to drown you. You really have to be lucky to survive a gator attack.

3) Brown bears--You may be able to trick a grizzly into abandoning an attack, but if he does not you may well not survive. They are not only huge, but they have a terrible disposition in the wild. Blows and bites can crush a skull and kill instantly. Grizzly attacks take place in remote areas where medical attention is not readily avaliable. The massive damage even from a brief encounter will likely leave you bleeding-out before help arrives.

4) Black bears may have a bit more tolerant dispostion than a brown, but a full blown attack is tough to survive. Even a moderate size black bear cannot be defended against. Their blows can kill instantly. Claw and teeth inflict massive damage and leave you to bleed out often far from help. They may break off an attack sooner than other bears, but if they don't you in a lot of trouble. I'ld rather face down a shark.

5) I would not rank sharks by species for several reasons. Reliable statistics are impossible to find, as most people cannot ID them correctly when their limbs are being chewed off. Species behavior matters less. Killer shark species behave more similar than say bears. Black bears and polaar bears are quite dissimilar.

Sharks attacked about 100 people in the US in 2004. 10% of them died. Most sharks that tangle with Americans are relatively small, so they are less deadly. Worldwide, the top three killer sharks (Great White, Tiger and Bull) deliver a mortality rate closer to 30%. You have a decent chance of surviving a shark attack in the US, but I still don't like the odds.

6-?) Snakes

the deadliest animal in North America, causing more fatalities is the white tail deer