My Science School

At most six metres in height, it is the giraffe. Almost half of the animal’s total standing height is the length of its neck. Its legs, which can be almost two metres long, contribute to most of the rest. Its height allows the giraffe to feed on the top layer of leaves on trees that other herbivores cannot reach.

Giraffes are the tallest living land animals on earth! No one has towered over these creatures since the time of the dinosaurs. Standing at over 18 ft. tall, these creatures are long-necked and long-legged, making these lanky animals perfectly built for browsing on tall trees and branches, taking advantage of food sources other herbivores cannot. Read on to learn about the giraffe.

These tip-top creatures stand in at 18 ft. tall, with a record height for the males of 19.3 ft. They have long legs, long necks, and relatively short bodies. Their heads are topped with bony horns, and their tails are tipped with a tuft of fur.

A short mane runs down the length of their long necks, and their coat is covered with a blotched/blocky pattern. Their base color is light cream, and their spots range from dark brown to burnt orange in color.

These creatures are relatively specialized to specific habitats. Though they can survive in a number of different ecosystems they have preferences for specific types of trees. This means that they thrive in environments like savannahs and sparse woodlands. They are more common in open woodlands than they are in more dense vegetation. When food is more scarce they tend to congregate around evergreen trees and bushes.

There are a number of different subspecies (or species depending on what research you believe) spread across different regions of Africa. Some populations are quite fragmented, putting them in danger of genetic inbreeding. Some populations are found in southern Africa, eastern Africa, and a few areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

These large mammals are herbivores, which means that they primarily feed on plants. Their primary diet is the leaves of trees and bushes, but they will also eat branches, bark, twigs, and some fruit. Some of their preferred plant species are acacia, apricot, and mimosa trees. They use their long tongues to carefully pluck and strip leaves from branches.

These large mammals are social, but live in flexible groups. While they are almost always found with other members of their own species, they do not keep the same groups over long periods. Most of the time, groups will consist of all males, or all females, though mixed-sex groupings do occur. They are generally quiet and non-confrontational, though males will fight during the breeding season.

Credit : Animals.NETT 

Picture Credit : Google 

An elephant’s most remarkable feature are it long trunk and fan-like ears. The trunk is actually an extended, highly flexible nose that an elephant uses to pick up food, carry water to its mouth, greet other elephant, pick up heavy objects and lots of other things. The ears, which are covered with blood vessels, help it to keep cool, elephants also have a giant teeth called tusks, which they use for digging or for defence.

An elephant’s heart constitutes about 0.5% of the animal’s total body weight, so if an elephant weighs 10,000 lb, then the elephant’s heart would be expected to weigh 50 lb – if an elephant weighs 4500 kg, then that elephant’s heart may weigh 27 kg.

The intestines of an elephant may be 19 meters in length, or more than 60 feet long. At 5 inches, or 12.7 centimeters long, elephants have the longest eyelashes in the world. The brain of an elephant is larger than that of any other land mammal, weighing between 8 and 12 pounds, whereas a human’s brain weighs 3 pounds on average. The growth and development of an elephant’s brain is similar to that of a human’s. Both are born with small brain masses. Similar to a human being, there is considerable growth and development in the brain as a young elephant grows up. As the mass of the brain increases so does the learning ability of young elephants. Brain size provides a rough measure of mental flexibility; large mammalian brains are associated with superior intelligence and complex social behavior.

The elephant’s body has a number of special features because it is so large and heavy. The skull, parts of which are six inches thick, contains many air spaces making the inside appear something like a honeycomb or sponge. This adaptation has allowed the skull to grow to a large size without enormous weight. The legs of an elephant are in an almost vertical position under the body, like the legs on a table. This design provides strong support for the massive body and huge weight that the legs have to carry. It also allows elephants to sleep standing up without the risk of their legs buckling.

Generally, the size of the ears is directly related to the amount of heat dissipated through them. The difference in ear size between African and Asian elephants can be based on their geographic range. The African elephant usually lives in a hotter, sunnier climate than the Asian elephant and needs larger ears to aid in thermoregulation.

Although ears help to regulate body temperature in both species, they are more effective in African elephants in that regard because the ears are larger. Flapping the ears helps to cool an elephant in two ways. In addition to enabling the ears to act as a fan and move air over the rest of the elephant’s body, flapping also cools the blood as it circulates through the veins in the ears. As the cooler blood re-circulates through the elephant’s body, the animal’s core temperature will decrease several degrees.

The hotter it is the faster the elephants will flap its ears. On a windy day, however, an elephant may find it easier to simply stand facing into the wind and hold its ears outward to take advantage of the breeze.

An elephant may also spray water on its ears, which also will cool down the blood before it returns to the rest of the body. Large ears also trap more sound waves than smaller ones.

Elephants may feed for up to 16 hours a day. In the wild one animal can consume as much as 600 pounds of food in a single day, although 250 – 300 pounds is a more typical amount. In a zoo, a typical adult elephant may eat 4-5 bales of hay and 10 – 18 pounds, or 4.5 to 8 kg, of grain a day. This amounts to a yearly quantity of more than 29,000 kg of hay and 2700 kg of feed per animal, The normal daily water consumption is 25 – 50 gallons per animal, or 100 – 200 liters.

Credit : International elephant foundation 

Picture Credit : Google 

The blue whale, the largest known living animal on our planet, can be as large as an aeroplane and can weigh around 200 tonnes! A newborn blue whale is as big as a bus! What is interesting is that these giants mainly feed on tiny, shrimp- like sea animals called krill, which they filter out of the water in their mouths. They can eat around four tones of krill on a day!

1. Blue Whales Can Grow More Than 100 Feet Long

They are gigantic. Generally ranging in length from 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters), the longest one ever recorded was a magnificent 108 feet (33 meters) long. That's about as long as three school buses lined up end to end.

2. They Can Weigh as Much as 30 Elephants

The average weight for these gentle giants is 200,000 to 300,000 pounds (90,000 to 136,000 kilograms), or about 100 to 150 tons. Some can weigh as much as 441,000 pounds (200,000 kg), or 220 tons. For comparison, an adult African bush elephant weighs up to 6 tons, so it may take 30 or more elephants to equal the weight of one blue whale.

3. They Have Big Hearts

The blue whale's heart is huge. It's the largest heart in the animal kingdom, weighing about 400 pounds (180 kg) and roughly the size of a bumper car. As a blue whale dives to feed, its giant heart may only beat twice per minute.

4. They Have Big Tongues, Too

A blue whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as some elephants.

5. They Have the Biggest Babies on Earth

Blue whale calves are the biggest babies on Earth, easily, and at birth already rank among the largest full-grown animals. They pop out at around 8,800 pounds (4,000 kg) with a length of some 26 feet (8 meters). They gain 200 pounds (90 kg) a day! Their growth rate is likely one of the fastest in the animal world, with a several billion-fold increase in tissue in the 18 months from conception to weaning.

6. They’re Unusually Loud

Blue whales, in fact, are the loudest animals on the planet. A jet engine registers at 140 decibels; the call of a blue whale reaches 188. Their language of pulses, groans, and moans can be heard by others up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

7. They Eat a Lot of Krill

Blue whales feast on krill; their stomachs can hold 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) of the tiny crustaceans at a time. They require almost 9,000 pounds (4,000 kg) of the little guys a day, and around 40 million krill daily during the summer feeding season.

8. They're Pretty Fast

They travel a lot, spending summers feeding in polar regions and making the long trip to the equator as winter comes along. While they have a cruising speed of 5 mph (8 kph), they can accelerate up to 20 mph (32 kph) when needed.

9. They Have Long Life Spans

Blue whales are among the planet’s longest-lived animals. Kind of like counting tree rings, scientists count layers of wax in the ears and can determine a ballpark age. The oldest blue whale they’ve discovered this way was calculated to be around 100 years old, though the average life is thought to last around 80 to 90 years.

10. They Once Were Abundant

Before whalers discovered the treasure trove of oil that a blue whale could provide, the species was plentiful. But with the advent of 20th-century whaling fleets, their population plummeted until finally receiving worldwide protection in 1967. From 1904 to 1967, more than 350,000 blue whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In 1931, during the heyday of whaling, an astounding 29,000 blue whales were killed in a single season.

11. Their Future Remains Uncertain

While commercial whaling is no longer a threat, recovery has been slow and new threats plague blue whales, like ship strikes and the impact of climate change. There is one population of around 2,000 blue whales off the coast of California, but all told there are only around 10,000 to 25,000 individuals left. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered. Hopefully with time, the planet’s largest gentle giants will again roam the seas aplenty.

Save the Blue Whale

• Look for seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which can help reduce the prevalence of fishing gear known to entangle blue whales.
• If you ever see a blue whale, keep your distance — for its safety and yours.
• Watch your speed and keep a sharp lookout if you're ever on a watercraft in potential blue whale habitat. Boat collisions can seriously injure blue whales.

Credit :  Treehugger.com

Picture Credit : Google 

On both land and water, the largest animals are all mammals.

At 100 feet long and 200 tons, not only is the blue whale the biggest mammal in the world, but it's also the largest vertebrate animal that has ever lived. Not even the largest dinosaurs approached it in bulk. Some titanosaurs were over 100 feet long, but they didn't weigh 200 tons. Fittingly, the blue whale is also the loudest animal on earth. This cetacean can vocalize at 180 decibels, enough to render most other animals deaf.

The largest land-dwelling mammal on earth, at seven tons, the African elephant is smaller than the blue whale for good reason: The buoyancy of water helps to counteract the blue whale's weight, and elephants are terrestrial. One reason the African elephant has enormous ears is to help dissipate its internal body heat. A warm-blooded, seven-ton mammal generates a lot of calories.

How can the biggest dolphin be a whale? Killer whales, also known as orcas, are classified as dolphins rather than whales. At six or seven tons, male orcas are bigger than the largest sharks, which means that killer whales, rather than great white sharks, are the atop predators of the oceans. Sharks have a more fearsome reputation because very few humans have been killed by killer whales.

Even-toed ungulates, or artiodactyls, are a widespread family of plant-eating mammals that includes deer, pigs, cows, and the biggest cleft-hoofed mammal, the common hippopotamus. The pygmy hippopotamus doesn't approach its cousin's five-ton heft. You could make a case for another even-toed creature, the giraffe, which is much taller than a hippo, but they weigh only two tons.

Perissodactyls, or odd-toed ungulates, aren't as diverse as their even-toed cousins. This family consists of horses, zebras, and tapirs on the one hand and rhinoceroses on the other. The biggest perissodactyl is the white rhinoceros, which at five tons rivals Pleistocene rhinoceros ancestors such as the Elasmotherium. There are two types of white rhinos, the southern white rhinoceros and the northern white Rhinoceros; it's easy to figure in what part of Africa they reside.

At up to four tons, not only is the southern elephant seal the biggest pinniped alive, but it's also the biggest terrestrial meat-eating mammal, outweighing the largest lions, tigers, and bears. Male southern elephant seals vastly outweigh females, which top out at two tons. Like blue whales, male elephant seals are extraordinarily loud; they bellow their sexual availability from miles away.

If you're under the illusion that polar bears, grizzly bears, and pandas are  comparable in size, you're wrong. Polar bears are by far the biggest—and deadliest—ursines. The largest males can reach a height of 10 feet and weigh up to a ton. The only bear that comes close is the kodiak bear; some males can reach 1,500 pounds.

The sirenians, the family of aquatic mammals that includes manatees and dugongs, are distantly related to pinnipeds and share many characteristics. At 13 feet long and 1,300 pounds, the West Indian manatee is the biggest sirenian by an accident of history: A bigger member of this breed, Steller's sea cow, went extinct in the 18th century. Some of them weighed 10 tons.

The genus Equus comprises not only horses but also donkeys, asses, and zebras. While some domesticated horses exceed 2,000 pounds, Grevy's zebra is the world's largest wild equid; adults reach half a ton. Like many other animals on this list, Grevy's Zebra is nearing extinction; there are probably fewer than 5,000 in scattered habitats in Kenya and Ethiopia.

How big is the giant forest hog? This 600-pound pig has been known to chase African hyenas from their kill, though it's sometimes preyed on by the largest African leopards. Despite its size, the giant forest hog is relatively gentle. It is easily tamed, if not outright domesticated, and can live alongside humans. It's mostly a herbivore, scavenging meals only when it's especially hungry.

Male Siberian tigers weigh a whopping 500 to 600 pounds; females reach 300 to 400 pounds. Only 500 or so Siberian tigers still live in eastern Russia, and continuing ecological pressure may strip this big cat of its title. Some naturalists claim that Bengal tigers have surpassed their Siberian relatives, since they're not as endangered and are better fed. There may be as many as 2,000 Bengal tigers in India and Bangladesh.

There are two contestants for world's largest primate: the eastern lowland gorilla and the western lowland gorilla. Both live in the Congo, and by most accounts, the 400-pound eastern variety has the edge on its 350-pound western cousin, though western lowland gorillas outnumber the eastern variety by a 20-to-1 ratio.

Credit : Thoughtco.com 

Picture Credit : Google 

Apes are so closely related to humans that some zoologists divide them into three kinds: great apes, lesser apes and us humans! Great apes are almost human-shaped, though they tend to have longer arms, big, protruding jaws, and are covered in fur. Gorillas are the biggest of the apes, while chimpanzees are man's closest relative and the smartest of the apes. They can communicate with varied vocal sounds, gestures and facial expressions. Lesser apes include gibbons and monkeys. They are agile apes that live in Southeast Asian forests, and can swing swiftly from branch to branch.

Apes are humanity's closest living relatives. In fact, people are apes; humans share about 98 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees. The non-human types of apes are divided into two groups: great apes — gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans — and lesser apes — gibbons and siamangs.

Apes are not monkeys; they belong to different branches of the Simian infraorder, and there are several physical differences. Apes do not have tails, while most monkeys do, and apes are typically larger than monkeys, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Apes' noses are short and broad, while monkeys' noses are more snout-like. Apes also have larger brains than monkeys, and they are capable of using tools and learning language. 

Just like their classifications suggest, great apes are large, while lesser apes are small. Gorillas, the largest of the apes, typically are about 4.5 to 5.5 feet (1.37 to 1.67 meters) tall when upright and weigh 200 to 450 lbs. (91 to 204 kilograms), according to Defenders of Wildlife. Mountain gorillas, though, can grow to 6 feet tall and weigh 300 to 485 lbs. (135 to 220 kg). Orangutans are the world's largest tree-dwelling animal. They grow to 4 to 4.5 feet (1.2 to 1.4 m) tall and weigh 90 to 200 lbs. (41 to 91 kg). Gibbons and siamangs are much smaller than great apes. They typically weigh around 9 to 28 lbs. (3.9 to 12.7 kg). Siamangs grow to 29.5 to 35.5 inches (75 to 90 centimeters) tall from head to rump, according to the San Diego Zoo.

The habitats of great apes and lesser apes are very limited. The great apes live in Africa and Asia, according to the National Zoo. They tend to live in jungles, mountainous areas and savannas. 

Lesser apes live in Asia in evergreen tropical rainforests and monsoon forests. Siamangs prefer to live 80 to 100 feet (25 to 30 m) in the air in the trees found in Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Apes are herbivores for the most part, but they also may eat small animals or bugs to supplement their diet. Gibbons, for example, eat mostly fruit, but they also munch on leaves, flowers and insects. Orangutans eat a fruit diet that is supplemented with vegetation, invertebrates, mineral-rich soil and small vertebrates. A chimp's diet is mainly fruits supplemented with insects, birds and small mammals, according to the Center for Great Apes.

Apes have offspring much like humans. They have live births after a gestation period of around eight and a half to nine months and typically give birth to only one or two babies at a time. They also breastfeed their young for an extending amount of time, like humans. 

Unlike other animals, apes take care of their young for many years. Apes also take much longer to mature than other animals. Some apes can take as long as 12 to 18 years to fully develop into an adult.

Credit : Live science

Picture Credit : Google