This huge and beautiful bear has evolved for a life in the frozen north. It has a double coat of fur, including the guard hairs that are transparent but appear snowy white to the human eye.
These members of the Bovini tribe of the subfamily Bovinae are the world’s largest cattle. The gaur, found in southern and southeast Asia, is the largest of these cattle.
While the Nile crocodile gets the most press for being a deliberate hunter of human beings, the saltwater crocodile is bigger. It can weigh as much as 1.45 tons to the Nile crocodile’s 1.2 tons.
Though not the heaviest animal on earth, the giraffe is the tallest. It can grow to 18 feet, which makes it well adapted to life among the tall trees in the dry savannas.
This seal was named for the male’s nose, which inflates during the breeding season and allows its trumpeting roar to be heard far and wide. It was also named for its sheer size.
Its herbivorous diet, barrel-shaped body, and what seems like a laid-back semi-aquatic lifestyle hides the fact that the hippopotamus is one of the most dangerous animals in the world.
The members of the Rhinocerotidae are some of the largest animals on earth. There are five species, with two found in Africa and three found in Asia, with subspecies.
Elephants are the world’s largest land animals. A big bull African bush elephant can weigh 11.5 to 12.25 tons, while the smaller African forest elephant can weigh up to 6 tons.
The whale shark is not a whale, but the world’s largest fish. It can weigh 20 tons. The second-largest fish, the basking shark can weigh as much as 18 tons.
The top 10 heaviest animals on earth are all whales. These majestic mammals were once terrestrial but returned to the sea millions of years ago.