Which is the heaviest among the available animals. Five of the most unpretentious pets for busy people. Tallest and longest land animal
For four of the five heaviest animal species, the main habitat is water. The aquatic environment reduces the force of gravity, gives room for movement, and provides nutrition for a huge organism.
However, all heavyweight champions trace their origins to land-based ancestors.
Fifth place - southern elephant seal
The fifth place among the heaviest representatives of the planet is occupied by the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) - a pinniped sea predator, a mammal from the seal family. The population lives off the coast of Antarctica. An adult male weighs on average 2-4 tons, the weight of the largest elephant seal reached 5 tons. The females of this type of seal are noticeably different from the stronger sex - they are miniature, weighing only 900 kg.
Elephant seals spend the lion's share of their lives in the water; they come ashore only in the spring - during the period of molting and mating. Male fights take place in the rookeries: tons of fat are knocked together and bones crack to the sounds of a threatening roar. Elephant seal calves are born weighing half a quintal, after a month their weight triples. Mothers leave the young and go to sea to feed. Elephant seals learn to survive on their own; almost 80% of the young become prey for white sharks and killer whales.
Third place - African elephant
The African elephant is the heaviest mammal that lives outside of water.. The mass of elephants in the savannahs of Africa is 7.5 tons, and the largest specimen weighed over 12 tons (elephants of the Indian jungle weigh only 5.4 tons). How the African elephant differs from the Indian elephant is described in our article. Elephants eat most of their lives - 15-20 hours a day; per day they absorb up to 300-450 kg of plant food and drink 100-300 liters of water.
The largest and heaviest animal, the heaviest weight, the largest crocodile and snail, the longest snake, the longest worms, the heaviest flying bird, the largest bacterium and the smallest light dog.
Which group of animals has the largest total weight?
Due to their numbers, insects have the largest total weight of all living creatures (including humans). All currently living insects would pull more than 2 billion tons. Compare: all people weighed together would add up to only 200 million tons - just one tenth of the total weight of insects.
Which animal is the heaviest?
The blue whale is the largest and heaviest animal. The two animals that were once killed weighed 136 and 195 tons. They reach a length of 35 meters. They feed on tiny organisms living in the sea.
Which earthworm is the longest?
Found in Australia, the earthworm can reach lengths of more than 3 meters. The largest of the described specimens had a diameter of 3 centimeters and was thicker than an adult’s thumb.
Which animal lifts its nose the highest?
The giraffe carries its head and nose at a height of 6 meters. Thus, the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world.
How much does the largest snail weigh?
The largest snail found, weighed and measured belonged to the species Syrinx aruanus. This huge specimen weighed 16 kilograms and had a girth of almost a meter. Her house was 70 centimeters long. Syrinx aruanus lives in Australia, it is an aquatic snail, and in water, as is known, weight decreases. Land-dwelling snails are somewhat smaller: the largest land snail, the African snail, is slightly heavier than half a kilogram with a maximum length of 35 centimeters.
Where does the largest crocodile live?
The largest crocodiles in the world live in South America, in the Orinoco and Amazon river basins. They reach 8 meters in length and weigh about 2 tons.
How long is the longest snake?
The large anaconda, found in South America, is typically approximately 8 meters long. But one day an anaconda was caught, its length was 14 meters and its diameter was 82 centimeters.
Which flying bird is the heaviest?
The trumpeter swan weighs up to 22 kilograms, and yet it flies. He lives in Northern Europe and North America. One of its ancestors, the long-extinct Gigantornis eaglesomei, was even heavier: it probably weighed about 28 kilograms. This bird lived 70 million years ago.
Can the largest bacteria be seen with the naked eye?
Even the largest bacterium is still too small to be seen without a microscope. The largest bacterium, Beggiatoa mirabilis, measures a maximum of 0.05 (one twentieth of a millimeter).
Which dogs are the lightest?
Chihuahuas weigh a little over a kilogram. This dog breed was developed in Mexico.
Among animals, as well as among people, there are record holders worthy of being included in the Guinness Book of Records. Some of them are recognized as the strongest, others - the fastest. And some can only boast of their enormous weight or number of teeth. But today we are interested in only one category, which we will talk about below.
There are many land and sea inhabitants on Earth that can compete for the title heaviest animal in the world. If you ask passers-by on the street which animal is the heaviest, you can hear a variety of answers: elephant and buffalo, whale and shark, hippopotamus and even giraffe. But in this article we must name the only earthly inhabitant whose weight and size significantly exceeds the parameters of its competitors. You will find out how much an elephant and a hippopotamus weigh, and whether they can be considered the heaviest. First, let's get acquainted with some giants that live on land.
Kodiak bear
This is not the heaviest land animal, but I would like to mention it in our review. A subspecies that is protected by the state in many countries. The average weight of a male exceeds 700 kilograms, and that of a female exceeds 300 kilograms. It must be said that there have been cases when the weight of a Kodiak exceeded a ton.
White (polar) bear
This is the heaviest carnivore living on land. The largest polar bear weighed a little over a ton and had a body length of about three meters. The height of the predator standing on its paws was 3.39 m. The average body length of male polar bears is about two and a half meters, the height at the withers is up to one and a half meters, and the average weight reaches eight hundred kilograms. Female bears are approximately half the size of males, their weight does not exceed 300 kilograms. It is interesting that one hundred thousand years ago (during the Pleistocene era) a huge polar bear lived on earth, whose weight exceeded 1.2 tons and its size was four meters in length.
Hippopotamus
This is one of the largest and heaviest animals living on Earth. The weight of large males often exceeds four tons, so the hippopotamus is a worthy competitor to the rhinoceros in the fight for second place in weight among land inhabitants.
Now the hippopotamus is found in natural conditions only in Africa, south of the Sahara, although in ancient times, for example, in ancient times, it had a wider range. This giant lived in North Africa, and scientists also believe that he lived in the Middle East. However, by the early Middle Ages it was destroyed in these regions. In 2006, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the hippopotamus as vulnerable.
The number of these animals at that time did not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand heads. The natives of Africa destroy hippos primarily for meat, so bloody wars and instability in many countries of the continent force starving people to look for food, thereby causing enormous damage to the animal population.
African elephant
This is the heaviest land-dwelling animal in the world. It differs from its counterparts living on other continents not only in its body weight, but also in its huge ears, which help it feel most comfortable under the rays of the scorching African sun.
The tusks of these giants are very valuable. It was they who almost caused the complete extermination of elephants. A huge number of animals were killed for expensive trophies. The situation with the disappearance of the population was saved by nature reserves and National Parks.
The weight of African elephants is impressive: adult males weigh more than 7.5 tons, but the heaviest land animal is very mobile, swims well and feels confident even on rocky terrain. African elephants are herbivores. They feed on young shoots of trees and shrubs, and grass. An adult consumes up to one hundred kilograms of green mass per day. Animals form small herds of 9-14 individuals. Apart from humans, elephants have no enemies in nature.
Knowing how much an elephant and a hippopotamus weigh, you can easily determine the leader by body weight. This is, of course, the African elephant, which is the heaviest land animal. It's time to meet the underwater inhabitants. Perhaps the heaviest animal in the world lives in the depths of the sea.
Whale shark
This is the largest shark among its relatives. Despite its impressive size (up to twenty meters) and impressive weight (up to twenty tons), it is not the heaviest. Representatives of this species live in the southern and northern seas. Northern individuals are much larger.
This gray-brown giant, covered with white spots, the arrangement of which is unique to each individual, lives for about seventy years. They feed by filtering out plankton and straining water. During the day, the shark passes 350 tons of water and eats more than two hundred kilograms of plankton. The mouth of this “fish” can accommodate up to five people; its jaws are strewn with fifteen thousand small teeth.
But these inhabitants of the depths are never the first to attack a person, and many scuba divers even touch them. Whale sharks have been little studied and are very slow. Their numbers are small, so the species is listed in the Red Book.
Sperm whale - toothed whale
Another very large, but not the heaviest animal. The weight of an adult male is about seventy tons, and his body length reaches twenty meters. The shape of the sperm whale's body (in the form of a drop) allows it to make long journeys in a short time (during the migration period).
Sperm whales, unlike whales, live in groups of up to 150 animals. The representative of the species has a huge rectangular head, compressed at the sides. It makes up a third of the whale's entire body. At the bottom there is a mouth with cone-shaped teeth. In these animals, the lower jaw is mobile and can open almost 90 degrees, which helps to capture fairly large prey.
Sperm whales (sperm whales) have one blowhole located in front of the head. It is slightly shifted to the left. Sperm whales feed on cephalopods and fish. But at the same time they can attack seals, dive to the bottom for squid, crabs, sponges and mollusks, descending to a depth of more than 400 meters.
The blue whale is the heaviest animal
This is truly the largest animal on our planet. The length of the body reaches thirty meters, and the mass of the blue whale is 180 tons or more. In this species, the females are slightly larger than the males.
It's hard to imagine, but the tongue of this sea giant weighs about 2.7 tons, which is comparable to the weight of an Indian elephant. The blue whale has the largest heart among mammals: it weighs 900 kilograms. To get an idea of its size, look at the Mini Cooper. They are quite comparable in size and weight.
The heaviest animal in the world has an elongated and rather slender body. On the huge head there are disproportionately small eyes. The sharp muzzle has a wide lower jaw. The blue whale has a blowhole, from which, when exhaling, it releases a fountain of water reaching a height of 10 meters. In front of the blowhole there is a clearly visible longitudinal ridge - the so-called breakwater.
This giant has a dorsal fin that is strongly displaced back. Compared to its body size, it is quite small and shaped like a triangle. Its back edge is covered with scratches, forming an individual pattern for each whale.
Physiological features
The blue whale's sense of smell and vision are rather poorly developed. But touch and hearing are wonderful. Representatives of this species of whales have a huge lung capacity, and the amount of blood exceeds eight thousand liters. Despite its impressive size, the blue whale has a narrow throat with a diameter of only ten centimeters. The pulse of this is 5-10 beats per minute and rarely increases to 20 beats.
The skin of the blue whale is even and smooth, with the exception of stripes on the belly and throat. These animals practically do not grow overgrown with crustaceans, which often settle on other whales in huge quantities. The color of the animal is predominantly gray with a blue tint. The head and lower jaw are usually a darker, richer gray.
Ecology
They were born with extraordinary qualities and each of them is exceptional in their own way.
Here are the strongest, most poisonous, loudest, fastest, longest and oldest representatives from the animal world.
1. The strongest animal
The most powerful animal in the world is the copepod. At just one millimeter in length, copepods are the strongest and fastest multicellular creatures.
Relative to its size, copepods move at the highest body acceleration relative to length per second.
Scientists are now studying the animal's jumping abilities, which will be used in robot technology. The copepod is considered to be 10-30 times stronger than any machine or animal in the world.
2. The loudest animal
Blue whales make the loudest sounds in the world, using low-frequency pulses whose noise has an intensity of up to 188 decibels. The cries of blue whales can be heard at a distance of 800 km. Blue whales are also the largest animals.
3. The deadliest animal
The female malaria mosquito is the deadliest creature in the world. These malaria-carrying mosquitoes kill more than a million people worldwide every year.
4. The most poisonous animal
One box jellyfish with 60 tentacles, each 4.5 meters long, has enough venom to kill 60 adults.
5. The oldest animal
The oldest reptile is the Galapagos giant tortoise, which can live more than 175 years. However, among the oldest animals there are such representatives as the oceanic venus - a mollusk that lived up to 405 years.
6. Fastest aquatic mammal
The fastest aquatic mammal is the white-winged porpoise, which can swim 56 km per hour.
7. Longest pregnancy in animals
Asian elephants have a gestation period of 19-22 months.
8. The smartest animal
The most intelligent animal, excluding humans, is the chimpanzee, followed by the dolphin.
9. Longest migration in animals
The Arctic Tern has the longest migration of any migratory bird. They cover distances of 22,400 km. Among mammals, the champion migrants are gray whales and northern elephant seals, which travel 20,900 km round trip each year.
10. The highest flying bird
Bar-headed geese are the highest flying birds. There is evidence that they can fly at altitudes of 10,175 meters and higher.
11. The slowest animal
The garden snail is the slowest animal, walking 48 meters per hour.
12. The tallest and longest land animal
The longest and tallest land animal is the giraffe. It can grow up to 6 meters in height, which is roughly equivalent to a two-story building.
13. The fastest animal
The fastest of the animals is the peregrine falcon. It can reach speeds of up to 321 km per hour.
14. The smallest insect
Tiny wasps, mimarids, are the smallest insects, whose size is approximately 0.46 mm.
15. Longest animal
The longest animals are nemertean worms, species Lineus longissimus. Their longest representative reaches 55 meters in length.
Empirical animal
The fauna of planet Earth is amazing and diverse. It contains both real giants, like the blue whale, and almost microscopic animals, which you won’t always be able to see (especially if they don’t want to).
Once upon a time, scientists empirically calculated that an animal whose weight was less than two and a half to three grams could not exist on earth - otherwise its tiny body simply would not be able to function fully, being “crushed” by the force of gravity present on the planet. However, such a coherent theory several decades ago crashed into practice, namely, into several amazing discoveries of new (for humanity, which had never suspected such a thing) representatives of the fauna.
Pygmy shrew
Thus, scientists discovered a tiny creature, which received the Latin name Suncus etruscus. In a non-scientific way, this extremely small animal has different names: Etruscan shrew, dwarf shrew, little shrew, etc. Only by the fact that it is a very light animal, and does not differ in any large dimensions, can this fact be explained that biologists remained unaware of its existence until the twentieth century.
Meanwhile, this representative of the genus of shrews, whose weight does not exceed 1.5-1.7 grams, and reaches only 3-4.5 centimeters in length (plus the tail, which is usually about 3.5 cm), lives in many locations Eurasia and northern Africa. You can meet it in the south of Europe (closer to the coasts of the Ionian, Adriatic and Aegean seas), and in the southern part of the Celestial Empire, and in Japan, and in Taiwan, and the Philippines, and in quite a number of other places in those latitudes. The “houses” of Etruscan shrews are all kinds of crevices, crevices (in rocks, abandoned buildings, etc.) and voids (including in tree trunks).
Appearance of the shrew
Outwardly, such an animal looks quite attractive. It has a very slender, elongated and very nimble body (covered with short brown fur, which is lighter on the belly), which turns into a thin proboscis at the nasal part of the head.
Despite its tiny size, the dwarf shrew is quite voracious (as are all shrews). She eats food per day that weighs two to three times her own size.
Finding it even if you want is very difficult. The point is not even in the microscopic length and weight of the body, but in the nocturnal lifestyle that such an animal prefers. By the way, this rodent should not be considered a priori an agricultural pest. Quite the opposite - it brings undoubted benefits to this industry in its habitats, since it destroys all kinds of insect pests.
Tiny pig-nosed bat
However, the Etruscan shrew is not the only lightest animal on earth. This title is shared with another tiny creature - the pig-nosed bat. It was discovered only four decades ago in Thailand, and its range is very limited to some locations in this country, plus here and there in neighboring Myanmar.
This representative of the bat class received his nickname for the unusual shape of his nose, somewhat reminiscent of a pig’s snout. In general, the animal differs little from other bats - the same shaggy body covered with brownish fur, ears with a large tragus, and membranous wings. The weight of this creature is - in adulthood - no more than one and a half to two grams, and the length of the body is 2.9-3.4 cm.
The nocturnal lifestyle and love of solitude do not allow one to get to know this “bumblebee mouse” better. However, experts have found out one thing for sure: the size of its population now hardly exceeds half a thousand. This made it possible to include such a rare creature in the Red Book as vulnerable.
It seems that the era of great discoveries - at least in biology - is not yet over. Perhaps the above animals will not remain in the rank of the lightest animals on earth for long, and soon scientists will discover much smaller creatures.