Claws are a must-have for wildlife animals. This formidable weapon is possessed not only by wild predators, but also by some herbivores and omnivores, and the reasons for the development of long claws are different.
What affects the length of the claws
If we consider the issue of the size of the claws depending on the size of the animal's body, then in most cases one can notice the proportionality of the sizes. For example, among felines, the tiger is the largest, and among bears - the Alaskan brown and polar bears, respectively, they have more claws than other species of their families.
Among herbivorous and omnivorous animals, the size of the claws depends not only on the size of the animal, but also on its vital activity. So, among omnivores, carriers of the frightening length of claws are large anteaters, giant armadillos; at the same time, sloths cannot be called large, but for their size they have huge claws.
Long claws rating
When compiling a rating of animals with long claws, the preferences in food of the animal and its vital activity were taken into account. It is worth touching on the basic physical parameters of animals - this will allow us to estimate the length of the claws in relation to the size of the body. Sloths are herbivores. Their body length is about 60 centimeters. They spend most of their life in trees, their claws are an indispensable aid for moving along the branches - they reach 7.5 centimeters in length.
Fossil sloths - megatheia had huge claws - up to 17 cm in length. At the same time, the megatherium itself weighed several tons with a body length of about six meters.
The large anteater can be called omnivorous. The length of its body reaches 1, 3 meters, and the claws on the five-fingered paw, incredibly sharp, are up to 10 cm in length! At the same time, they do not retract, which is why the anteater has to bend its paw and lean on the back side. Uses claws to destroy anthills and termite mounds, as well as protection.
The Komodo monitor lizard is the largest animal of all the representatives of the monitor lizard family, a predator. Its body length is 1 to 3 meters, and their claws can grow up to 10 centimeters in length. Uses claws to move over surfaces, to attack and defend.
The largest specimen of the Komodo dragon (the second name of the monitor lizard), caught in the wild, had a length of 3, 13 meters and a weight of 166 kg.
The tiger is a large predator of the feline family. Its body length can reach 2, 8 meters. Its claws are razor-sharp and reach a length of 12 centimeters. Tigers love to claw trees - by these marks, you can determine not only the habitat of the animal, but also its size. They can retract their claws into the paw pads.
The largest representatives of the bear family are white and brown bears. The length of representatives of both species reaches 3 meters. The size of their claws can vary from 12 to 15 centimeters or more, depending on the size of the animal.
The armadillo is an omnivorous animal, its length reaches 1 meter, and half of the length falls on the tail. He has very large claws - on his front paws, especially on the third toe, they can reach a length of 20 cm, which is a record in the animal world. Uses claws to defend and create burrows.
Based on the results of the comparison, we can summarize: the armadillo is the owner of the longest claws, but if we take into account the ratio of body length and size of claws, the sloth follows it in the trail.
