The Biggest Animals
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The largest animal on Earth
is the blue whale. Blue whales can measure anywhere from 75
feet (23 m) to 100 feet (30.5 m) from head to tail, and can
weigh as much as 150 tons (136 metric tons). That's as long
as a 10-story building and as heavy as about 112 adult male
giraffes! These days, most adult blue whales are only 75 to
80 feet long; whalers hunted down most of the super giants.
Female blue whales generally weigh more than the males. The
largest blue whale to date is a female that weighed 389,760
pounds. |
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The
African elephant. At full size, African elephants -- the
largest living mammals on land -- can weigh 14,000 pounds.
There are only three species alive today: the Asian
elephant, the African savannah elephant and the African
forest elephant. The largest living elephant, and overall
the largest living land mammal, is the male African
elephant, which can consume up to 600 pounds of food a day. |
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The giraffe is an African
mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species. Males
can be 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 feet) tall and weigh up
to 1,360 kilograms (3,000 pounds). The tallest was 5.87 m
(19.2 feet) tall and weighed approximately 2,000 kg (4,400
lbs.). Females are generally slightly shorter. The giraffe
is related to deer and cattle. Its range extends from Chad
to South Africa. |
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The Bison is the biggest
animal in the Yellowstone National Park. They can weigh up
to 2,000 pounds. The most abundant grazing animal in North
America was formerly the American Bison. One estimate of the
original number of bison in North America ranged as high as
70 million animals. A single herd located southwest of what
is now Dodge City, Kansas in 1871 was carefully estimated to
have over 4 million members! |
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The hippopotamus (hippos
meaning "horse" and potamos meaning "river") is a large,
mostly plant-eating African mammal. The hippo is
semi-aquatic, inhabiting rivers and lakes in Africa in large
groups of up to 40 hippos. During the day they remain cool
by staying in the water or mud.
Despite their physical resemblance to pigs their closest
living relatives are whales, porpoises and the like. The
hippopotamus can easily outrun a human. Despite its
popularity in zoos and cuddly portrayal as gentle giants,
the hippopotamus is among the most dangerous and aggressive
of all mammals. |
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The Capybara is the largest
living rodent in the world. It is related to guinea pigs.
Its common name means "master of the grasses".
Capybaras have heavy, barrel-shaped bodies and short heads
with reddish-brown fur on the upper part of their body that
turns yellowish-brown underneath. Adult capybaras may grow
to 4.3 ft and weigh up to 140 lb. They have slightly
webbed feet, no tail, and 20 teeth. |
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The Belgian draft horse is
a breed which comes from Belgium. They are one of the
strongest of the heavy breeds.
On average the Belgian will grow to weigh slightly over 1
ton or 2,000 pounds. The world's tallest Belgian Draft
is Radar, a gelding foaled in 1998 in Iowa. He stands at
19.3½ hands high, which means he is 6 feet 7½ inches tall
and weighs over 2,400 lb. The world's largest Belgian Horse
was named Brooklyn Supreme, who weighed 3,200 pounds
and stood at 19.2 hands. |
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