The animal world is diverse. Someone is tiny in size, and someone is a giant whom I would not want to meet face to face.
In this article we will talk about the five largest representatives.
Fifth Place - White Rhino
The body weight of a white rhino can reach 5 tons (in old males), so it is in the 5th place in the rating of the largest animals. The average weight is 2 -2.5 tons. Other parameters: body length - about 4.2 m, shoulder height varies from 1.6 to 2 m. The main food is grass.
White rhinos, which actually have a dark gray color, have two horns: front and rear. The animal repels them from their enemies. These horns became the reason for the extinction of the almost completely subspecies northern white rhino: two surviving female individuals live now in the Kenyan reserve.
Southern white rhinoceros is still found in nature, but under protection. The animal habitat is southern Africa. Now the subspecies is not in danger of extinction.
Fourth place - Indian (Asian) elephant
It is inferior in size to its African counterpart: the male reaches a mass of 5.4 tons, the female is half as much, 2.7 tons. Growth varies from 2.5 to 3.5 m. The body length also has impressive parameters - 5.5-6 , 4 m, and to it you can still add 1.2-1.5 m of tail length.
The habitat of animals is the Indo-Malayan biogeographic region, which includes India (northeast and south of the country), Thailand, Brunei, Fr. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, etc.Depending on the environment, they are divided into four subspecies: Indian, Sri Lankan, Sumatran, Bornean. The fifth subspecies is sometimes distinguished population distributed in Laos and Vietnam.
Interestingly, Indian elephants are right-handed and left-handed, that is, they use more tusk right or left. The degree of deterioration and the roundedness of one or another tusk helps to determine this fact.
They belong to herbivores, spending up to 20 hours a day searching for food. 6-8% of their weight is absorbed by food per day, which is 150-300 kg. The advantage in the diet belongs to the grass, the bark, flowers, fruits, roots and leaves of various plants are also used.
Third place - African elephant
Belongs to the proboscis squad. Mammal. You can meet on the African continent in the regions located south of the Sahara. This is the largest land animal and one of the most dangerous on earth..
There are two subspecies of African elephants: savannah and forest. The first ones are larger, the weight of one representative is fixed at 12.24 tons (which is currently a record). On average, animals reach 4 m in height, 7.5 tons in mass (males) and 5 tons (females).
African elephants are very smart, ready to help their relatives. So, if one individual can not cope with a leech, the second is able to take a stick and unhook the bloodsucker.
What is the difference between an African elephant and an Indian elephant written in our article here.
Second place - Sperm whale
The dimensions of an adult male reach 20 m in length and 50 tons of weight. Females in smaller dimensions are 15 m and 20 t, respectively.Habitat - almost the entire sea ocean, excluding areas close to the polar poles. Food consists of cephalopods, less commonly fish.
Sperm whale belongs to dangerous animals. Aggression is manifested in a wounded state, so hunting for a mammal is a risky business. Cases of the death of sailors hunting sperm whales, and the sinking of whalers, are known. But until the 80s of the XX century, production was predatory in nature, which affected the number of livestock in the direction of reduction.
Among the fauna of a sperm whale, only an killer whale walks in enemies, and even this it sways more young individuals and females. The killer whale cannot cope with the adult sperm whale.
The largest animal in the world
Blue (blue) whale - the largest animal in the world. If some animals are ranked by size, putting it one notch higher in the hierarchy, then lowering them down in the ranking of the largest animals, then no one can encroach on the leadership position. The giant of the deep sea weighs over 150 tons, and its length is 33 m.
Blue whale lives in tropical and polar seas. The diet consists of krill, sometimes small fish, cephalopods and large crustaceans fall as a meal. Of the senses, touch and hearing are well developed, poorly - taste, smell, vision.
There are three subspecies of blue whale, some scientists distinguish another fourth. The animal is smart and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is being destroyed, in particular due to whalebone, fat and mass.
The TOP-5 largest animals are two marine and three land animals. The blue whale has no equal, and the rest will not catch up to it in mass (up to 150 tons).Sperm whale, two elephants (Indian and African) and rhinoceros can reach a weight of 5 to 7.5 tons.
