Prepare to plunge into the mysterious and unusual world of wildlife.
On Earth, there is a huge number of a wide variety of animals, many of which have very impressive dimensions and awesome appearance. It seems that with the modern development of science, at least all the largest species have long been discovered and described. However, the Antarctic giant squid, for example, was first caught only in 1979, before that scientists could only guess about its existence by finding the remains of individuals in the stomachs of marine predators. Who knows, maybe the Loch Ness monster is a mythical creature, and someday scientists will still find a similar animal in some remote corner of the planet.
1. Mississippian Alligator
Mississippi (or American) alligator, bird eater, rodents and swamp dwellers, can be safely called a modern dinosaur. This monster about 3.5 meters in length and weighing under 300 kg can instill real horror, and yet it can sometimes be seen on the golf course, in the courtyard of a private house or in a parking lot. How would you feel if a predator, twice as big as you, crawled past?
2. White rhinoceros
White rhinoceros is a vanishing species - for a long time haphazardly destroyed because of the horn, which, according to ancient legends, has magical properties. Slightly larger than the hippopotamus, the white rhinoceros take second place after the elephant in size from land animals, its length can reach 4 meters, the height in the shoulders - up to 1.9 meters, and weight - 3.6 tons, the length of the horn in some males may reach up to 150 cm. At present there are only three specimens of the northern subspecies of the white rhinoceros living in the Kenyan reserve.
3. Fish-moon
Fish are giant in size, like, for example, the fish-moon (or the sun-fish, as it is also called), the largest caught fish that reached more than 4 meters in length and the same size in height (between the ends of the fins). Its extraordinary shape makes the fish-moon one of the most interesting inhabitants of the oceans. Large, heavy and slow, this fish eats plankton and jellyfish.
4. Yellow-bellied large-eyed skid
Due to the abundant food, consisting mainly of rats, the yellow-bellied large-eyed skid can reach 2 meters in length. Brightly colored, with large beady eyes, the snake can not cause harm, since it is not poisonous, however, cases of its attack on people are known. The unhappy people clearly experienced real horror when such a monster attacked them.
5. The Komodo Varan
The largest lizard on the planet lives on the islands of Indonesia and resembles a real dragon. The length of the largest specimen was more than 3 meters, and weight - 160 kg, with half the length of the body is the tail. With a kind of clumsy, these lizards can reach speeds of up to 20 km / h. They live for a rather long time, their life expectancy is comparable to the human and according to scientists' calculations is 62 years.
6. The Polar Bear
One of the largest terrestrial predators is the polar bear. Its length reaches 3 meters, the height at the withers is 1.3 meters. Feeding on seals, seals and walruses, the largest representatives of the species can weigh more than a ton - like a small car. Polar bears are excellent swimmers, can stay in the water for a long time and travel long distances. Meet with a polar bear is considered even more dangerous than with a grizzly.
7. Kodiak
Representatives of the largest subspecies of brown bears can reach a length of about 3 meters, be 1.5 meters in height and weigh more than a ton. Not as dangerous as polar bears, Kodiaks, certainly not the animals that you want to meet one on one.
8. Chinese giant salamander
Reaching 180 cm in length and weighing up to 70 kg, the Chinese giant salamander is the largest representative of amphibians. The unattractive appearance of this peaceful animal in many people is disgusting. The species lives exclusively in clean mountain water bodies, and because of environmental pollution and application in Chinese medicine, is on the verge of extinction.
9. Flanders
This Belgian giant is just a rabbit, just the size of a large dog. Flanders is one of the oldest breeds in the world, derived in the 16th century in Flanders (Belgium). The weight of the flander usually ranges from 10 to 12 kg, and the largest is fixed at 25 kg.
10. The giant flying fox
An inhabitant of the tropical forests of the islands of southeast Asia, a giant flying fox is the largest bats living on the Earth. The body with a muzzle like a fox, reaches 40 cm in length, while the wingspan can be up to one and a half meters. Flying foxes of this species feed on fruits, and since they live in large groups, they can cause significant harm to farmer plantations.
11. Capybara
Capybara - the largest rodent in the world up to one and a half meters in length is found in South America. Capybari are social animals, live in groups of 10-20 individuals, feed on grass and love to swim, so they do not deviate from water more than a kilometer, especially since they hide in the water from their natural predator enemies.
12. Japanese spider crab
One of the largest representatives of arthropods with the largest swing of limbs, which reaches 3.8 meters, lives off the coast of Japan. The species eats mollusks and lives presumably up to 100 years.
13. Curly Pelican
The curly pelican is the heaviest of the waterfowl on the Earth, it can weigh up to 15 kg, have a wingspan of 3.5 meters and the length of the body, as in an adult male, is 183 cm. Its habitat is quite wide - from the Balkans to Mongolia, and on winter he flies to China, Iraq and Egypt.
14. Anaconda
The largest relative of the boa constrictor reaches 6 meters in length and weighs about 100 kg, inhabiting the rivers of South America. A secretive way of life and an intimidating view breeds a lot of myths and legends about this huge snake, besides scientists still have no idea about the life span of this species, or its population.
15. Southern Sea Elephant
The largest land predator can reach 6.5 meters in length and weigh about 5 tons. The most interesting fact is the difference between the sizes of females and males of the southern elephant elephant: they are several times lighter and half as long (weight does not exceed 1 ton, and the length is 3 meters).
16. The Giraffe
The highest terrestrial animal, whose representatives can reach almost 6 meters, a third of which is occupied by the neck. Such giraffe weighs about 2 tons. Strange as it may seem, the neck of a giraffe consists of the same number of vertebrae as other mammals, but they are extraordinarily elongated. To avoid blood pressure problems that would necessarily arise because of such a long neck, evolution has taken care to create a strong giraffe, a twelve-kilogram heart that creates pressure three times higher than a person's, and the blood is much thicker.
17. Savory Elephant
The largest land animal, this representative of the genus of African elephants can reach almost 4 meters in height with a length of about 7 meters and weigh more than 10 tons, while tusks can reach 2 meters. In addition to humans, these giants do not have natural enemies, so they can live up to 70 years and die from exhaustion when the last teeth are erased.
18. The ostrich
The largest bird of the living, up to 2.8 meters in height and weighing up to 156 kg, can not fly at such a size, but it perfectly runs, developing the speed of the car (up to 70 km / h) and taking steps of 3.5-4 meter, while perfectly maneuvering, changing the direction of movement, without reducing speed. The largest bird lays and the largest eggs weighing up to 2 kg and about 20 cm long.
19. Antarctic giant squid
One of the most mysterious marine inhabitants is known only for several species and, reaching 14 meters in length and weighing 750 kg, is considered the largest modern invertebrate. In addition, this monster also has the biggest eyes among animals - 30-40 cm in diameter.
20. Beluga
One of the largest freshwater fish reaches a weight of 1.5 tons and a length of more than 4 meters, while the beluga is one of the longest-living fish, whose age can exceed 100 years. Beluga caviar is the most valuable of sturgeon, because of it in some areas fish is on the verge of extinction, and the cost of a kilo of caviar on the black market exceeds 7000 euros.
21. The Killer Whale
More like a large shark, killer whale, nevertheless, refers to dentists whales, marine mammals, or rather - to dolphins. The largest representatives of the species can reach a length of up to 10 meters and weigh about 10 tons, which makes them the largest dolphins on Earth.
22. The White Shark
One of the largest modern fish can reach more than 6 meters in length and weigh about 2 tons, it is recognized as the most dangerous shark for humans, it is the white shark attributed to the largest number of attacks on humans.
23. The Float
The largest representatives of beaked whales in appearance, especially in the shape of a head with an elongated beak, can be confused with dolphins, but they refer specifically to whales. The length of the marshes can exceed 12 meters, and weight - 14 tons.
24. Sperm whale
Another representative of marine mammals, the largest of toothed whales in length can exceed 20 meters, and weigh about 60 tons. Up to the prohibition in the early 1980s, sperm whales were actively exterminated for the sake of specific fat, as well as spermaceti and amber, which are actively used in pharmaceuticals and perfumery to this day. However, hunting for sperm whales was very risky, since the wounded giant is extremely dangerous, there were times when angry animals drowned whalers. Sperm whales have the largest brain and the longest intestine in the animal kingdom.
25. The Japanese whale
Being on the verge of extinction these days, this species of whales numbered tens of thousands of individuals in the 19th century. A bit shorter than the sperm whale, the Japanese whale is considerably heavier, at a length of up to 20 meters it can weigh over 80 tons. Currently, there are not more than 50 animals left off the coast of Alaska and about 500 in the Sea of Okhotsk.
26. The Blue Whale
Scientists suggest that the blue whale - the largest animal ever lived on Earth, there are individuals over 30 meters long and weighing about 180 tons. For comparison, the largest dinosaur supposedly weighed 90 tons. A blue whale can dive to a depth of half a kilometer and be underwater for up to 50 minutes.