23 of the biggest living animals in the world

Across the land and through the waves of the sea, there is one animal that is bigger than any other living things in the world: the blue whale. This majestic, carnivorous sea creature weighs a colossal 180 tonnes; that’s around 180,000 kilos! When blue whale calves are born, they can weigh up to 2.75 tonnes and put on around 90 kilos every day during the first year of their lives.

Found in sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s second largest land animal. Funny thing is, hippos are actually semi-aquatic mammals and spend the majority of their day in rivers and lakes to keep their over 900-kilo body cool under the blazing African sun!

Find hippos adorable? They pale in comparison to these 21 photos of the cutest wild animals in the world.

Eastern gorillas are found in the lowlands and mountains of Africa. Even with a diet of stems, bamboo shoots, and fruit, male gorillas can weigh up to 200 kilos. This makes them the largest living primates. However, their population is drastically decreasing in size. In the 1990s, there were about 17,000 eastern lowland gorillas. Sadly, scientists estimate that there is less than 50 per cent of that now.

If Peter Rabbit were a Flemish rabbit he’d definitely need a bigger blue jacket. Hailing from Belgium, the nine kilo Flemish rabbits were originally bred for their fur and meat, not to keep as giant fluffy pets. But if you wanted a real-life snuggle bunny, you could get a Flemish rabbit in black, blue, fawn, light grey, steel grey, sand or white.

Here are some other adorable animals – but these ones have a dark side!

This giant squid was found in Norway in 1928. Here, biologists are measuring one of its tentacles, but overall, the squid is nine metres long. As the largest invertebrates on Earth – meaning they don’t have a backbone – they can weigh over 180 kilos.

Don’t let a manta ray’s nine-metre long, 900-kilo body fool you. Unlike stingrays that have tails that can hurt you, manta rays are usually harmless. Sometimes they just jump out of the water, which scientists interpret as the manta ray needing to remove parasites from its body, feeding, courting or communicating.

The world’s largest fish is called a whale but’s it’s actually a shark. But whale sharks are not the only animals with surprisingly misleading names. The name comes because of it’s massive size; they can grow up to 12 metres long. You would think these enormous sharks would want to eat you given the chance, but to whale sharks, humans are friends, not food. Whale sharks typically eat krill, fish eggs and smaller fish and are known to be gentle around scuba divers.

If you have a fear of rodents, your skin might crawl looking at the world’s largest rodent. Capybaras can weigh anywhere between 25 and 80 kilos, with the females being a bit larger than males. Unlike rats, capybaras have webbed feet to help them swim and don’t have tails.

If you think the capybara is a wacky looking specimen, check out 30 of the weirdest looking animals in the world.

Although a reticulated python can grow a bit longer than a green anaconda, the 30-cm wide diameter of an anaconda’s body earns it the title of world’s largest snake. They grow more than nine metres long and can weigh more than 250 kilos, especially when they eat wild pigs, deer and even jaguars.

If you ever wanted to be a real mother of dragons, consider getting a Komodo dragon, or maybe just have a look at one in the zoo. Komodo dragons are the biggest lizards on Earth weighing up to 135 kilos. Like the fire-breathing dragons of your fantasies, Komodo dragons have poisonous bacteria in their saliva that will kill their prey in 24 hours after being bitten.