Animals
A member of the order Cetacea, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived. The maximum recorded weight was 190 tonnes for a specimen measuring 30 m (98 ft), while longer ones, up to 33.4 m (110 ft), have been recorded but not weighed.
The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), of the order Proboscidea, is the largest living land animal. A native of various open habitats in sub-Saharan Africa, this elephant is born commonly weighing about 100 kg (220 lb). The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1974. It was a male measuring 10.7 m (35 ft) from trunk to tail and 4.2 m (13.7 ft) lying on its side in a projected line from the highest point of the shoulder to the base of the forefoot, indicating a standing shoulder height of 4.0 m (13 ft).
- Table of heaviest living animals
The following is a list of the heaviest living animals, which are all cetaceans. These whales also qualify as the largest living mammals. Since no scale can accommodate the body of a large whale, most whales have been weighed by parts.
| Rank | Animal | Average mass |
Maximum mass |
Average total length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue whale | 110 | 190 | 25.5 (84) |
| 2 | North Pacific right whale | 60 | 120 | 15.5 (51) |
| 3 | Southern right whale | 58 | 110 | 15.25 (50) |
| 4 | Fin whale | 57 | 120 | 19.5 (64.3) |
| 5 | North Atlantic right whale | 55 | 100 | 15 (49) |
| 6 | Bowhead whale | 54.5 | 120 | 15 (49) |
| 7 | Sperm whale | 31.25 | 57 | 13.25 (43.5) |
| 8 | Humpback whale | 29 | 48 | 13.5 (44) |
| 9 | Sei whale | 22.5 | 45 | 14.8 (49) |
| 10 | Gray whale | 19.5 | 45 | 13.5 (44) |
- Table of heaviest terrestrial animals
The following is a list of the heaviest wild land animals, which are all mammals. The African elephant is now listed as two species, the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant, as they are generally considered to be two separate species now.
| Rank | Animal | Average mass |
Maximum mass |
Average total length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | African bush elephant | 4.9 | 12.7 | 6 (18): Height* |
| 2 | Asian elephant | 4.15 | 8.0 | 6.8 (22) |
| 3 | African forest elephant | 2.8 | 6.0 | 6.2 (20) |
| 4 | White rhinoceros | 2.1 | 4.5 | 4.4 (14.5) |
| 5 | Indian rhinoceros | 1.9 | 4.0 | 4.2 (13.9) |
| 6 | Hippopotamus | 1.8 | 4.5 | 4 (13.2) |
| 7 | Javan rhinoceros | 1.715 | 2.3 | 3.8 (12.5) |
| 8 | Black rhinoceros | 1.1 | 2.9 | 4 (13.2) |
| 9 | Giraffe | 1.0 | 2 | 5.15 (16.9) |
| 10 | Gaur | 0.95 | 1.5 | 3.8 (12.5) |
Read more about this topic: Largest Organisms
Famous quotes containing the word animals:
“There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Thou almost mak’st me waver in my faith
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)