page_title: Man-eater
section_title: Reptiles
hierarchical_section_title: Man-eater / Reptiles
caption_attribution_description: Crocodile, Kachikali, Bakau, The Gambia
context_page_description: Man-eater is a colloquial term for an individual animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has killed in self-defense. However, all three cases may habituate an animal to eating human flesh or to attacking humans, and may foster the development of man-eating behavior.
  Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet and actively hunt and kill humans. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved lions, tigers, leopards, and crocodilians. However, they are not the only predators that will attack humans if given the chance; a wide variety of species have also been known to adopt humans as usual prey, including bears, Komodo dragons and hyenas.
caption: The Nile crocodile is one of the species involved in the most unprovoked fatal attacks on humans.
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