When answering the question about the world's largest animal, many will think of such a giant as an elephant, but this giant, in fact, takes only an honorable second place, significantly inferior in mass and size to a marine mammal - a blue (blue) whale.
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet
The blue whale is truly a huge creature. He is the largest not only living, but also of all who have ever lived on our planet. For example, it is twice as heavy as Brachiosaurus - the largest dinosaur that lived on planet Earth. If we compare the blue whale and the African elephant, then the first is 5-6 times heavier.
The dimensions and weight of the blue whale are really amazing: its length can reach 30 meters (which approximately corresponds to the height of a 10-storey building), but such specimens are considered especially large, the average whale is 22-25 m long. An adult weighs up to 125-150, or even 180 tons! The mammalian tongue alone has a mass of 2.5 to 4 (in large individuals) tons. The weight of a blue whale's heart can be up to a ton (this, however, is 2-3 times less than that of toothed whales), and the lung capacity reaches 3 thousand liters.
The blue whale is a fairly slender animal. Its body length significantly dominates over its width. About a quarter of the body's length falls on the head.
Blue whales live in almost the entire world's oceans, while the northern and southern subspecies can often be found in cold waters, and the dwarf (a very conditional name, it is not much inferior in size and weight to its counterparts) - in warmer ones.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of blue whales, according to various sources, numbered about 200-300 thousand, subsequently, due to the massive extermination of the animal, it decreased many times. In the 60s of the 20th century, hunting for this species was completely prohibited. Now, again, there is no consensus regarding the number of blue whales living in the world's oceans. According to various sources, there are from 1, 5 to 15 thousand.
The largest on land
The largest land animal is the African bush elephant. The male can reach 3.5 m in length (the female is slightly smaller) with a weight of up to 6 tons and a height of about 3.5 m. The size of the animal's tusks can reach 2.5 m, weight 45 kg. The molars of an elephant also have a considerable weight - about 5 kg each. The African elephant is much larger in size and weight than its Indian (Asian) counterpart.
But the tallest creature on Earth is rightfully considered a giraffe. An adult grows up to 5 meters or more, while the longest part of the body of this cloven-hoofed mammal is the neck (its length can reach 2m). The weight of the animal ranges from 600 kg to 2 tons. Females are lower and weigh less than males. The stride length of the giraffe is 6-8 m.
