Top 10 Biggest Animals

Animals take many shapes and forms and come in a great diversity of sizes, from microscopic to the 30 m long blue whale! Whether you measure in terms of weight, height or length, there is no denying some animals are huge in comparison to others in their class.

10. Goliath Beetle

Goliath beetles are some of the largest insects in the world both as adults and larvae. It is thought that Goliath beetles are the heaviest of all the insects.

 Larvae can weigh as much as 100 grams and adults 50-60 grams, the adults can also reach 12 centimetres in length.

9.  Chinese Giant Salamander

Heavily built salamander. Head strongly depressed, snout obtusely truncate; nostrils small, rounded, close to the edge of the upper lip and at the corners of the truncated snout, the internasal space less than half of the interorbital space. Eyes small, rounded, dorso-lateral in position, and without eyelid. Top of head more or less flat, with a rounded temporal protuberance above and behind each eye.

 Vomerine teeth in an arched series starting between the choanae, parallel to the maxillary and premaxillary series. A thin lower labial fold starting about midway between nostril and eye to the angle of the mouth. Trunk less depressed than head, with about fifteen costal grooves, a strong vertebral groove, and strong lateral dermal folds. Legs short and flattened. Tail 59% of the body length, compressed. Dorsal tail fin extending to the trunk. Skin rough and porous, with wrinkles, folds and tubercles.

 Color of animals is dark brown, black or greenish. Irregularly blotched and marbled with dusky spots. Total length about 100 cm, Chang (1936) quotes a maximum of 180 cm, but most animals found nowadays are considerably smaller (Liu and Liu 1998). Specimens of 115 cm weigh approx. 25 pounds (Liu 1950). Closely related and very similar to A. japonicus. There are no records of geographic variation.

8. ostrich

Height: Female, 5.7 to 6.2 feet (1.7 to 1.9 meters); male, 6.9 to 9 feet (21. to 2.7 meters)

Weight: Female, 198 to 242 pounds (90 to 110 kilograms); male, 220 to 287 pounds (100 to 130 kilograms)

An ostrich’s eye is almost 2 inches (5 centimeters) across—the largest eye of any land animal.

Weighing in at more than 3 pounds (1,500 grams), the ostrich egg is the largest egg—in fact, the largest single cell—found on our planet today. Only dinosaurs produced larger eggs.

7. saltwater crocodile

The largest living reptile is the Saltwater Crocodile, growing to an average length of 17 ft (5.2 m), although they can reach 21 ft (6.3m) in length and weigh up to 21 US tons (1,900 kg). They are distributed widely in brackish and fresh waters in parts of India, Asia and Australia and feed on all animals they can get their teeth in to, which includes sharks if they get the chance

6. whale shark

As the worlds largest fish, the Whale Shark can reach up to 46ft in length, rivalling the size of some whale species. 

These gracious creatures are part of the elasmobranch family, meaning that they are cartilaginous fish! Rather than a skeleton comprising of bone, the Whale Sharks skeleton is made of tough cartilage.

Not only are they large, but they live long too! The Whale Shark is known to survive up to 150 years of age!

5.  Brown bear

Bears are extraordinarily intelligent animals. 

They have far superior navigation skills to humans; excellent memories; large brain to body ratio; and use tools in various contexts from play to hunting.

Bears grieve deeply for others. Cubs are known to moan and cry when separated from their mothers.  This can go on for weeks if their mothers are killed by hunters.

Bears have excellent senses of smell, sight and hearing. They can smell food, cubs, a mate or predators from miles away. Their great eyesight allows them to detect when fruits are ripe.

4. Giraffe

It is a famous, gentle giant of the African savannah, but the giraffe's genetics have just revealed that there is not one species, but four.

Giraffes have previously been recognised to be a single species divided into several sub-species.

3. African Elephant

He largest living land animal is the African Elephant which can weigh up to 6,350 kg (7 tons);

They typically grow to 35 ft (10.6 m) from trunk to tail and have a shoulder height of 13 ft (4.2 m).

There are at least two species, the savanna elephant and the forest elephant, and they currently cited as venerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 

2. Colossal Squid

The size of the colossal squid is often exaggerated, with viral posts on the internet saying they can reach 60 ft (18 m) or even 90 ft (27 m) in length! However, the largest squid documented was 45 ft (14 m) long. They have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, reaching 10 in (25 cm) in diameter!

1. Blue Whale

The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth.

Despite being so massive, this giant of the ocean feeds on some of the smallest marine life – tiny shrimp like animals called krill. A single adult blue whale can consume 36,000 kg of krill a day.

Incredibly, Blue Whales are graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at over 8km/h, and can reach speeds of over 30km/h.