Joe Rogan and Australian comedian James McCann didn’t set out to do a biology lecture.
They just started swapping horror stories.
What followed was a rapid-fire compare-and-contrast of the most dangerous creatures on two continents – with plenty of jokes, a few myths, and a surprising amount of truth tucked between the laughs.
I listened, took notes, and added some context of my own.
Bears, Cats, and Coyotes: Joe’s American Roll Call
Joe Rogan opens with home-field predators.
- Grizzlies in Yellowstone and Wyoming.
- Black bears in Yosemite.
- Mountain lions where you least expect them.
As Rogan tells it, black bears are generally less dangerous than grizzlies, and coyotes mostly menace pets, not people. The real headline risk in the Lower 48, in his view, is the rare but catastrophic run-in with a grizzly or a big cat.
Rogan also points out a funny bit of Californian irony: there’s a grizzly on the state flag, but no grizzlies left in the state. We hunted them out a long time ago.
That single detail says a lot about how Americans manage scary wildlife – protect some, remove others, and put the most iconic one on a banner.
It’s not a bad summary of U.S. risk: large, dramatic predators in specific hotspots, and lots of human control at the edges.
“Infested by Monsters”: James McCann’s Croc Country
James McCann counters with the Australian vibe.
Sure, they’ve got venomous snakes and spiders. Every Australian mentions them. But the animal that reshapes daily life up north is the saltwater crocodile.
“Just keep away from far North Queensland,” McCann jokes.
Then he admits that yes, people do exactly that.
Rogan pounces: when a whole stretch of coast is effectively ceded to giant, aggressive reptiles, that’s a different category of danger. His language borders on mythic – “the most aggressive dinosaur in the world” – and honestly, it fits the creature.
Salties get huge. They’re smart, territorial ambush hunters. And they move between rivers and the ocean like they own both.
McCann brings up Australia’s most unintentionally legendary sound bite: politician Bob Katter saying he won’t waste time on cultural questions because “every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland.”
It’s a wild line. Rogan asks if it’s true. McCann shrugs, then admits the numbers wobble, and Rogan reads off a more modest tally since 2020.
Here’s the thing: you don’t need an inflated stat to feel the risk. The presence of apex ambush predators in everyday waterways is a different psychological weight than a far-off bear in the Rockies.
That’s the Australian edge.
Numbers, Narratives, and the Fear of Getting Eaten
Rogan says it out loud: there’s something uniquely terrifying about being eaten.
It’s not just death; it’s how you go. The “reptilian evil,” as Rogan puts it, triggers a deeply human response.
On paper, America racks up more encounters simply by scale – more people, more national parks, more everything. But a croc-dense estuary with warning signs, closed beaches, and locals who won’t wade past their knees changes behavior at the town level.
McCann jokes it’d be “an honor” to be taken by such a dinosaur. Rogan, gloriously unconvinced, says he’d rather bring in special forces and thin the herd from helicopters.
He follows up immediately with a caveat – he’s kidding, keep a few in a zoo – but his instinct is telling. Americans tend to manage risk with decisive intervention. Australians tend to live around it with rules and respect.
Those are stereotypes, yes. But listen to their tones – it tracks.
The “Cage of Death” and the Thrill of Proximity
McCann brings up the “Cage of Death,” a clear acrylic cylinder in the Northern Territory that dunks tourists within nipping distance of a croc the size of a car.
Rogan recoils. Then can’t look away.
He notices scratches in the acrylic.
He imagines what happens if a latch fails.
This is why salties loom so large in the Australian imagination.
They’re not just dangerous. They’re visibly dangerous.
They leap.
They surge.
They stare with yellow, unblinking eyes.
Even people who never see one in the wild make life choices around them: where to swim, where to fish, where to let the dog drink.
You don’t calibrate your day around a black widow or a brown snake the same way. Crocs are infrastructure.
Predators, Prey, and Pests: Who’s Killing Whom?
When the conversation returns to mammals, Rogan asks the ecology question: if kangaroos sometimes need culling, what killed them before?
McCann admits Australia lost most of its big natural predators a long time ago. Dingoes, likely arriving from Asia millennia ago, fill some of the niche, but they’re not lions. They’ll pack-hunt and take smaller roos, but they’re not dropping the six-foot boxers that square up on tourists’ phone cameras.
It’s a window into how Australia’s risks stack.
Few apex land predators.
Plenty of medium ones.
And a surplus of herbivores that sometimes boom until humans step in.
America’s pyramid tilts differently. We kept more big carnivores on the landscape, especially in the West and Alaska. That spreads the danger around – fewer “monsters” in the water, more in the mountains.
Neither system is “safer.” They’re just different kinds of wild.
The Tasmanian Tangent: Devils, Tigers, and Weird Biology
The pod takes a detour into Tasmania, and it’s a fascinating one.
Rogan is genuinely startled by Devil Facial Tumor Disease – a transmissible cancer that spreads between Tasmanian devils when they bite each other. It’s grisly and almost unbelievable: living cancer cells hopping hosts like an infection.
McCann confuses Tasmanian devils and the extinct Tasmanian tiger for a beat, then lands on the real punchline: Australian wildlife is strange even when it’s not trying to kill you.
- Koalas with chlamydia.
- Devils with contagious tumors.
- Marsupials with behaviors that feel alien to Northern Hemisphere instincts.
It’s a reminder that “dangerous” isn’t always teeth and claws. Sometimes it’s disease ecology that wipes out a species faster than any predator could.
Alligators, Nile Crocs, and Salties: Joe’s Size Wars
Rogan circles back to reptiles he’s seen up close.
He’s unimpressed by smaller alligators, then immediately mentions a fatal Orlando gator attack to underline that size matters. He asks whether salties outclass Nile crocodiles. The answer he’s given: salties tend to be larger and more aggressive.
Whether or not your field guide agrees down to the millimeter, the spirit holds — Australia’s flagship reptile is engineered to bully.
Rogan tells a story from Africa about a village plagued by a giant, man-eating croc, with locals missing limbs and improvising anti-croc fences. It’s cinematic because it’s true: these animals can stake out a river bend and terrorize a community.
Australia’s advantage is wealth and warning signs.
But nature doesn’t read budgets.
So… Who Has More Deadly Animals?
If you’re counting species that can kill you, both countries are stacked.
America fields grizzlies, black bears, mountain lions, wolves in limited ranges, bison that will absolutely launch you, moose that look gentle until they don’t, and alligators wherever the marsh runs warm. Add rattlesnakes, scorpions, and more.
Australia counters with saltwater crocodiles, box jellyfish, irukandji, blue-ringed octopus, stonefish, great whites off the southern coasts, tiger sharks in the tropics, brown snakes, taipans, redbacks, funnel-web spiders, and the occasional cassowary that can put you in the hospital with a kick.
If you’re counting encounters per capita, the answer gets murkier.
Americans recreate in bear and cat country in massive numbers. We rack up more total human-wildlife meetings, and more outcomes of every kind – from “cool photo” to “call a helicopter.”
Australians live beside a smaller set of high-consequence threats that often command a whole coastline or river system. The number of attacks may be lower, but the ambient fear of the one bad encounter is higher.
So who “wins”?
It depends on your metric: count, closeness, or sheer nightmare fuel.
If it’s nightmare fuel, Australia takes it.
If it’s total dangerous encounters, the U.S. probably does.
If it’s creatures that warp how entire regions live, the saltie tips the scales back Down Under.
Staying Alive Where the Wild Things Are
Rogan’s final note is pragmatic: respect the animals and the places they rule.
- Don’t swim where crocs hunt.
- Don’t jog with earbuds in lion country at dusk.
- Don’t feed the gators. Don’t selfie the bison.
- And for the love of your femurs, don’t tap on the “Cage of Death.”
McCann’s closing note is homesick and proud. He misses the gum trees, the footy, the surreal chorus of Australian wildlife at night – devils and all.
My take?
Both countries are lucky. They still have wild things that can end you if you’re careless. That’s terrifying, and also a kind of gift. It forces humility. It pushes us to learn local rules. It makes a trail, a river, or a reef feel alive.
And it gives Joe Rogan and James McCann plenty to argue about the next time they sit down — two continents, one question, and no wrong answer except pretending the monsters aren’t there.
UP NEXT: “Heavily Armed” — See Which States Are The Most Strapped
Image Credit: Survival World
Americans have long debated the role of firearms, but one thing is sure — some states are far more armed than others. See where your state ranks in this new report on firearm ownership across the U.S.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
