Which animal does Zaroff consider to be the most dangerous game?

General Zaroff is the antagonist in Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game." He owns a secluded island in the Caribbean Sea where he indulges in his favorite pastime, hunting. When Sanger Rainsford, a big game hunter from New York, blunders onto Zaroff's island, the general invites him to dinner and describes his passion for hunting. The general has hunted all over the world and pitted his skills against dangerous animals such as tigers, grizzlies, and the Cape buffalo. Unfortunately, Zaroff discovers that he has grown bored with hunting such animals. For him, it has become too easy. He admits to Rainsford that he had to "invent a new animal" which would provide more of a challenge or else, Zaroff believed, "he would go to pieces." Rainsford, of course, is quite interested in this new animal until Zaroff admits that he actually hunts men. The general understood that only a reasoning animal could provide the type of danger he craved. Thus, he began hunting the sailors who had become shipwrecked on his island. Zaroff rationalizes this abhorrent practice by believing that it is his right, as a superior human being, to hunt men of lesser intellectual prowess. He tells Rainsford,

I hunt the scum of the earth—sailors from tramp ships—lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels—a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them.

When Zaroff invites Rainsford to hunt with him, the American refuses, calling the general uncivilized. Because he is steadfast in his refusal, Rainsford eventually becomes one of Zaroff's new animals, and the second half of the story recounts Zaroff's pursuit of Rainsford through the island's jungles.
The title of the story is an example of verbal irony. The term "game" has two meanings in this title. First, it describes a hunted animal as being dangerous game because it can sometimes turn violently on the hunter. Second, the title refers to the dangerous game being played between Zaroff and Rainsford in which Zaroff is ultimately killed.

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