Phobias of animals are relatively common with studies finding 5-10% of people experiencing one during their life. Many studies find they are more common in women but that may be because men don’t like to admit they are scared of creepy crawlies! You can follow this link to one of the most quoted studies.
Shareranks.com has a crowdsourced list of the most frequent phobias. It may not be totally accurate but it's certainly fun. You would probably guess most of the animals on the top 20 list but some may be a surprise such as bulls and otters.
Baby otters: the stuff of nightmares
- Spiders: arachnophobia
- Snakes: ophidiophobia
- Sharks: selachophobia
- Fish: ichthyophobia
- Bees: apiphobia
- Horses: equinophobia
- Worms: helminthophobia
- Wasps: spheksophobia
- Insects: entomophobia
- Termites: isopterophobia
- Toads: bufonophobia
- Birds: ornithophobia
- Cats: ailurophobia
- Shellfish: ostraconophobia
- Lice: pediculophobia
- Frogs: batrachophobia
- Bulls: taurophobia
- Reptiles: herpetophobia
- Otters: lutraphobia
- Dogs: cynophobia