All about which is the heaviest animal. The heaviest animals in the world

Everyone knows that the largest animal in history, a giant animal, lived on Earth many millions of years ago - a dinosaur. There were many types of them. And today the size of prehistoric animals seems simply stunning.

However, the modern animal world is no less amazing and diverse. The earth is full of creatures that are amazing in size and shape. It’s hard to even imagine what affected their weight and height. However, they are who they are and feel quite comfortable among people.

And yet, which animal is the largest? This is what you have to find out. What kind of creatures are these, and in what conditions do they live? So, below is the rating of the 10 largest animals on our planet. This list is based on the height, length, as well as mass of the creatures. Let's start from the end.

Saltwater crocodile

In tenth place is saltwater crocodile. It is also called combed or spongy. This crocodile is the largest reptile in the world. An adult male can grow up to seven meters in length, weighing over a ton! Typically, most crocodiles are about five meters long. And they weigh on average eight hundred kilograms.

Saltwater crocodiles are quite widespread. Their habitat begins in Northern Australia and ends Southeast Asia. The crocodile is an active predator. Its daily diet includes insects, mollusks, crustaceans, various small amphibians and fish. But any animal that wanders into its territory becomes a potential victim. Having watched the victim on land, the crocodile drags it under water, to where it is no longer useless to resist.

Interesting fact: saltwater crocodile is highly valued for its skin, which serves as material for handbags, shoes, clothes, etc. Therefore, this type of crocodiles is raised in artificial conditions: on special farms.

Black rhinoceros

Since black rhinoceroses are huge, powerful and absolutely fearless, they have no enemies among animals. But they are easy prey for numerous poachers. Black rhinoceroses prefer to move along the same paths, and also have very poor vision. This makes them an excellent target for trophy hunters.

Walrus

In eighth place is the walrus. This is perhaps the largest animal that has existed since the time of ice age. Thus, the fossils found in San Francisco Bay are about twenty-eight thousand years old.

Walruses are truly huge: their length reaches three meters, and their weight fluctuates around two tons! These animals have very durable and thick skin. Especially in the neck area, where it reaches ten centimeters. And under the skin there is still a layer of fat fifteen centimeters. Thanks to this, walruses feel great in harsh conditions. arctic conditions. The diet of these animals mainly consists of shellfish, but fish is also occasionally found.

White rhinoceros

Seventh place - white rhinoceroses. They are considered the second largest herbivores on the planet. They grow up to two meters in height and four meters in length. Rhinos are heavyweights. Some large specimens reach eight tons!

Interesting fact: despite the name, these animals are gray in color. Why then is there a “white” rhinoceros and not a “gray” one? Most likely, rhinoceroses received this name due to the fact that there was a distortion of the Boer word “wijde”. It translates as “wide-faced.” And it sounds like English word"white" (white).

Hippopotamus (hippopotamus)

In sixth place is the hippopotamus, an indigenous inhabitant of Africa from the artiodactyl order. Hippos grow up to one and a half meters in height and five meters in length. The weight of these mammals fluctuates around three tons, or even more. Throughout its life, the weight of the hippopotamus gradually increases. The same applies to his teeth. Old hippos' teeth can reach half a meter in size!

An interesting fact is that the hippopotamus skin alone weighs half a ton.

Southern elephant seal

Fifth place is occupied by the southern elephant seal - the largest animal on earth from the category of pinnipeds. Large and obese elephant seals grow up to six meters in length. And their body weight is about five tons. The largest of the elephant seals was shot in the winter of 1913 in southern Georgia. It weighed more than five tons and reached seven meters in length.

The main diet of these animals is fish and squid, which live at depths of up to a thousand meters. In search of prey, elephant seals dive repeatedly and spend a lot of time underwater. This is how a record was recorded - the animal was under the ode for about two hours. By the way, these mammals spend most of their lives in open ocean, come to land quite rarely, as a rule, during the breeding season.

Southern elephant seals are the largest dangerous animals. They are the largest predators in the world.

Indian elephant

The Indian elephant also has a second name - “Asian”. It would have earned the title of “the world’s largest land-dwelling animal” if not for its African counterpart. Elephants reach three and a half meters in height and about six meters in length. In addition, these animals have enough a long tail(from a meter to two). The weight of an Indian elephant can reach five and a half tons. By the way, females are much smaller than males.

Asian elephants are forest dwellers. Most often they can be found in subtropical and tropical deciduous forests. Elephants love bamboo and bushes. They move through overgrown jungles and swampy areas with ease.

Interesting fact: Indian elephants live in packs, led by the most experienced and mature female.

African elephant

In third place in the ranking is the African elephant - the largest animal among those that live on land. Males weigh about six tons and reach eight meters in length and three in height. Females weigh half as much and are no more than two to three meters in height.

The largest animal living on land has practically no enemies. Of course, thanks to its size. But little elephants are still attacked by bloodthirsty lions, leopards, hyenas and crocodiles.

Elephants move surprisingly fast. So, their average speed is about forty km/h. Thus, an elephant can easily outrun a human. Of course, such sizes require a lot of food: for example, one elephant can eat about three hundred kilograms of grass per day. These animals are very smart and even capable of compassion. But despite this, they are considered one of the most dangerous on the planet.

Interesting fact: due to its enormous size, the African elephant has to sleep standing up.

Sperm whale

The second place is occupied by the sperm whale. Today it is the largest animal on earth from the suborder of toothed whales, as well as the only remaining one of the sperm whale family. Huge male sperm whales reach twenty meters in length and weigh fifty tons! But female representatives are much smaller: up to eleven meters in length, weighing fifteen tons. Of course, you can find larger sperm whales, but this is an exception.

In nature, adult male sperm whales have no enemies. And for cubs and females, only killer whales pose a threat.

Interesting fact: thirty-five percent of the sperm whale's entire body is made up of the head alone.

Blue whale

So, the largest animal (photo in the article) is the blue whale. Other names are blue, or vomit. Refers to marine mammals. There are three species of these giants in the world - southern, northern and dwarf whales. They practically do not differ in external signs and sizes. Sometimes scientists identify a fourth species - the Indian whale. North and South blue whales They live in cold circumpolar waters, and the dwarf one lives in tropical seas. All subspecies lead almost the same lifestyle. They usually swim alone, sometimes in pairs. You can also find small groups, but even in them, each of the whales stays separately.

The blue whale is the largest animal in the world that has ever existed and known to science. Even dinosaurs are not able to compete with him - he is truly huge! So, an adult can grow up to thirty meters in length. The weight can be about one hundred and eighty tons. Yes, only one tongue of this animal weighs as much as a medium-sized Indian elephant (about three tons).

The blue whale has the largest heart in the world. It is the size of a car, and weighs about the same. Lung volume reaches three thousand liters. This allows whales to remain underwater for about half an hour without oxygen. These giants swim quite quickly (about forty km/h). You can notice them from afar by the ten-meter fountains that appear during the ascent to the surface.

The blue whale's diet consists mainly of plankton and small shrimp-like creatures. They are called "krill". Whales eat about forty million krill every day.

Largest pet

But what about our smaller brothers whom we have tamed? Among them there are also quite large individuals that one cannot help but pay attention to.

The most large breed dogs is an English mastiff. On average, males grow up to ninety centimeters and weigh about one hundred and twenty kilograms. Bitches weigh a little less - up to about a hundred kilograms. These dogs are aristocrats. They are loved not only for their power, but also for their balance, courage, and peacefulness. The English Mastiff will make both an excellent watchdog and a cheerful companion dog.

The largest animal of this breed in the world is an English mastiff named Aikama Zorbo. He got into the Guinness Book of Records thanks to his weight of more than one hundred and fifty kilograms.

The largest breed of domestic cat is the Asherah. It reaches a meter in length and weighs about fifteen kilograms.

This is an exotic hybrid cat that looks like a small leopard. This type was released in 2006. To create the Ashera, the genes of the African serval, Asian leopard and ordinary domestic cats were mixed. The animal got its name thanks to pagan goddess Asher.

This cat is not only the largest, but also the most expensive. So, an Ashera kitten costs more than twenty thousand dollars. However, this does not at all confuse those who want to get such a pet; they line up in advance. This cat is a rarity, as the company raises only one hundred animals a year.

Asherah is somewhat reminiscent of a small sphinx. She is the perfect pet. Considered hypoallergenic, she loves to play with children, rub against their feet and, of course, sleep. And she’s absolutely not picky about food. Ashera is the only cat you can walk with on a leash.

The world's largest rabbit - Belgian Flanders. This is a very ancient Flemish breed, bred in the sixteenth century (Ghent, Belgium). These rabbits can weigh about thirty pounds (thirteen kilograms) and be the size of a large dog.

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.

On Earth there are many terrestrial and sea ​​creatures who 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 a female - 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. Average length male torsos polar bear is about two and a half meters, the height at the withers is up to one and a half meters, and 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 on the territory North Africa, and scientists also believe that he lived in the Middle East. However, by 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 body weight, but also huge ears, which help him 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 reserves and National parks.

Weight African elephants 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 in sea ​​depths lives the heaviest animal in the world.

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 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 little studied and 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 perform short time(during migration) long journeys.

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 dorsal, strongly shifted 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.

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 the fact that it is a very light animal, and does not differ in any large dimensions, can explain this fact 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 also 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 in 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 shrews

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 in 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 a pest. Agriculture. Quite the opposite - it brings undoubted benefits to this industry in its habitats, since it destroys all kinds of insect pests.

Tiny pig nose 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 unusual shape a 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-mentioned animals will not remain in the rank of the lightest animals on earth for long, and soon scientists will discover much smaller creatures.

The largest and heaviest animal, the most heavy weight, most big crocodile and the snail, the most long snake, the most long 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 thumb adult.

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, African, slightly heavier than half a kilogram at maximum length 35 centimeters.

Where does the largest crocodile live?
The most big 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.

The world is full of wonders, there are many amazing animals in it. They are all unique in their own way. Some eat plants, others only fresh meat. Some live in the sea, others on land. Each creature is interesting and unique in its own way. The palm among the giants is rightfully shared by the 3 largest representatives: the blue whale, the sperm whale and the African elephant.

The blue whale is a giant among marine mammals

The largest animal on the planet is considered to be the blue, blue or azure whale. The whale's body has a streamlined shape that is optimal for underwater habitat. The size of the animal can reach 30 m; there are giants weighing about 180 tons or more. Scientists consider the whale to be the largest individual on the planet that has ever lived on Earth. The heart of a blue whale weighs about 0.6 tons, the volume of the lungs is more than 3,000 liters, the tongue can weigh up to 2.7-3 tons and more.

The body of the whale is dark gray with a bluish-azure tint, covered with fancy marble stains. There is a large dorsal fin on the back and a pair of fins on the sides. pectoral fins. Lives in the waters of the North Atlantic and Far East. The main food source is plankton, fish and squid. A full stomach of a well-fed whale can hold about 1.5 tons of food.

Sperm whale - giant toothed whale

The weight of an adult male sperm whale is approximately 60-70 tons, body length is up to 20 m. Females are much smaller. Habitat: from Arctic waters to the equator. The teardrop-shaped body of the sperm whale allows it to quickly make long journeys during the migration period. Unlike whales, which prefer solitude, sperm whales usually stay in small groups of up to 150 individuals.

Animals feed mainly on fish and cephalopods. However, they can attack seals and freely dive to the bottom for crabs, squids, mollusks and sponges to a depth of more than 400 m. The way sperm whales communicate is interesting. They, just like blue whales, use sounds for this: characteristic clicks, creaks and frequent crackling sounds.

The African elephant is the largest land mammal.

The three largest animals on the planet are completed by the African elephant. It differs from its counterparts from other continents by its huge ears. They help him feel comfortable in the scorching sun of Africa. Elephant tusks are worth their weight in gold. It was this dignity of the proud animal that almost led to its disappearance. Hundreds of thousands of unfortunates were killed for the sake of an expensive trophy. National parks and reserves literally saved the population from extermination.

An elephant's body weight is impressive. Adult males weigh about 7.5 tons, but despite this, the giant is quite mobile, swims excellently and feels comfortable even on rocky terrain. Elephants are herbivores, feeding on grass and young branches of trees and shrubs. An adult eats up to 100 kg of green mass per day. Lives in small herds of 9-14 units. Fortunately, elephants have no enemies except humans and human greed.