Collection
Record Breakers
The biggest, smallest, fastest and loudest animals on Earth, and the numbers behind the claims. The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal that has ever lived, and makes the loudest sound any animal makes. At the other end of the scale the Etruscan shrew weighs less than a coin, and its heart can beat 1,500 times a minute.
All 44 animals in this collection, from the addax to the zebra finch. Most of them live in Africa and Asia.
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Addax
Addax nasomaculatus
It may never drink water in its entire life, taking every drop from desert plants.
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African Wild Dog
Lycaon pictus
Catches prey on most hunts. Lions fail about three times out of four.
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Aldabra Giant Tortoise
Aldabrachelys gigantea
Among the longest-lived animals on land, with individuals passing 150 years.
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Anaconda
Eunectes murinus
The heaviest snake on Earth, though not the longest.
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Bear
Ursidae (family, eight species)
Seven months without eating, drinking or passing waste, and it barely loses any muscle.
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Bumblebee Bat
Craseonycteris thonglongyai
The smallest mammal by length, at roughly the size of a large bumblebee.
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Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
The fastest animal on land, reaching 70 mph (113 km/h) in short bursts.
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Chicken
Gallus gallus domesticus
There are more chickens alive than all wild bird species put together.
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Crocodile
Crocodylidae (family, about 14-16 species)
The strongest bite ever measured in a living animal, at about 3,700 pounds per square inch.
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Dragonfly
Anisoptera (suborder, about 3,000 species)
Catches about 95 percent of what it chases. A lion manages one in four.
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Eagle
Accipitridae (several groups, about 60 species)
Its two eyes together weigh about as much as its brain, and it sees up to eight times sharper than you.
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Elephant
Elephantidae: Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis, Elephas maximus
The largest animal on land, reaching about 13,000 lb (6,000 kg).
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Elephant Seal
Mirounga angustirostris and Mirounga leonina
A mile deep, two hours on one breath, and 8,800 pounds of animal.
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Etruscan Shrew
Suncus etruscus
The smallest mammal by weight, with a heart that beats up to 1,500 times a minute.
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Firefly
Lampyridae (big dipper firefly: Photinus pyralis)
The most efficient light on Earth. Nearly all the energy becomes light, not heat.
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Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
The tallest living animal, with the same seven neck bones that you have.
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Gorilla
Gorilla gorilla and Gorilla beringei (two species)
The largest primate on Earth, and it lives almost entirely on leaves and stems.
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Hummingbird
Trochilidae (family, about 360 species)
The only bird that can fly backwards, beating its wings up to 80 times a second.
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Ibex
Capra (genus); figures from the Alpine ibex, Capra ibex
It climbs the near-vertical wall of an Italian dam, on 57-degree stone, to lick salt off it.
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Indri
Indri indri
It sings in a true rhythm. Until 2021 no mammal but us was known to have one.
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Jaguar
Panthera onca
The strongest bite of any big cat for its size, enough to punch through a turtle shell.
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Kangaroo
Macropodidae: Osphranter and Macropus (four species)
The only large animal that travels by hopping, clearing 25 feet at 35 miles an hour.
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Mandrill
Mandrillus sphinx
The largest monkey in the world and the most colorful mammal alive.
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Octopus
Octopoda (order, about 300 species)
One deep-sea octopus brooded her eggs for four and a half years, longer than any other animal.
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Ostrich
Struthio camelus
The largest and heaviest living bird, and the fastest animal on two legs.
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Otter
Lutrinae (Eurasian otter: Lutra lutra; sea otter: Enhydra lutris)
Up to a million hairs per square inch, the densest fur of any animal on Earth.
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Penguin
Spheniscidae (emperor penguin: Aptenodytes forsteri)
A male emperor stands through the Antarctic winter for 65 days without food, egg balanced on his feet.
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Python
Pythonidae (family, about 40 species)
The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, at over 20 feet.
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Quahog
Mercenaria mercenaria (hard clam); Arctica islandica (ocean quahog)
The oldest animal ever accurately aged: an ocean quahog of 507 years.
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Salamander
Caudata (order, about 800 species)
It regrows a whole leg, correctly, over and over, and can rebuild parts of its eye, heart and spinal cord.
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Seahorse
Hippocampus (genus, about 45 species)
The dwarf seahorse is the slowest fish in the sea, at about 5 feet per hour.
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Seal
Pinnipedia (harbor seal: Phoca vitulina)
It drops its heart to four beats a minute, dives 5,000 feet, and holds its breath for two hours.
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Shark
Selachimorpha (superorder, over 500 species)
One Greenland shark was estimated at around 400 years old, the longest-lived vertebrate known.
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Sperm Whale
Physeter macrocephalus
The largest brain of any animal that has ever lived, and the loudest sound any animal makes.
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Toco Toucan
Ramphastos toco
The largest beak of any bird for its size, and it weighs almost nothing.
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Tortoise
Testudinidae (Galapagos giants: Chelonoidis)
Jonathan hatched around 1832 and is still alive, the oldest known living land animal.
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Vaquita
Phocoena sinus
The smallest cetacean alive, and the one with the smallest range of all.
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Vicuña
Vicugna vicugna (also classified as Lama vicugna)
Grows the finest wool in the world, at roughly 12 microns a fiber.
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Walrus
Odobenus rosmarus
It identifies a clam through seafloor mud with 450 nerved whiskers, then sucks it out without opening the shell.
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Yabby
Cherax destructor
It has the largest distribution of any freshwater species in Australia, and can wait out a drought for years in a dry burrow.
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Yak
Bos grunniens (domestic) and Bos mutus (wild)
It grazes at 20,000 feet, where the air holds about half the oxygen of sea level.
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Yellow-Eyed Penguin
Megadyptes antipodes
The least colonial penguin in the world. Pairs nest alone in forest, out of sight of each other but still within earshot.
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Yellowfin Tuna
Thunnus albacares
Up to 47 miles an hour, over 400 pounds, and one tracked more than a mile down. Warm-blooded, which is why it can never stop swimming.
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Zebra Finch
Taeniopygia castanotis
Drinks a quarter of its own body weight every day, yet in one experiment more than half the birds survived 513 days with no drinking water at all.
No animals match those filters.