Top 20 Strongest Animals in the World
Summary
Top 20 Strongest Animals in the World. When we talk about discovering the strongest animal in the world, it’s hard to say definitively which animal wins. This is because there are so many different kinds of strength that it is […]
Top 20 Strongest Animals in the World. When we talk about discovering the strongest animal in the world, it’s hard to say definitively which animal wins. This is because there are so many different kinds of strength that it is nearly impossible to pick a single animal out as the strongest of all. Instead of trying to determine a single winner, let’s look into the top 20 strongest animals in the world.
Video: Top 20 Strongest Animals in the World
Amazing creature: crocodile
The crocodile has perhaps the strongest biting force on the planet. With its powerful jaws, the creature can instantly kill almost any prey by exerting up to 5,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. For comparison’s sake, a human can only bite with around 100 pounds per square inch. The key to the crocodile’s remarkable strength is its enormous jaw muscles. However, this ability does have one weakness: their mouths exhibit very little opening strength. It’s possible to keep the jaws clamped down with a rubber band.
The saltwater crocodile has the greatest bite force of all animals, with it measuring at 3,700 psi. The bite was measured by Dr. Gregory Erickson, a professor at Florida State University who studied the bite forces of all species of crocodiles. The bite was taken from a 17ft saltwater crocodile using a device placed at the end of a stick to measure force. Dr. Erickson studied multiple species of crocodiles and discovered that saltwater crocodiles have the largest bite force, but he also analyzed other species and the similarities between them. Larger saltwater crocodiles may be able to produce a stronger bite, as some can reach up to 23 feet and weigh over 2,000 lbs.
Video: Top 20 Strongest Animals in the World
Eagle
Considering the power to lift the weight, eagles are the strongest birds in the world. Eagles have powerful feet, large hooked beaks, and sharp talons. It lets them lift off prey that weigh four times their weight. Eagles are known for hunting foxes, deer, and wildcats. Eagles are also regarded as a symbol of power, freedom, and victory. These fearless hunters also have a strong vision. Their eyes have more light-sensitive cells than humans. So, they can easily spot prey and enemies from long distances.
According to scientists at Hawk Quest, an environmental education nonprofit in Colorado, a bald eagle’s gripping strength is ten times stronger than the average grip of an adult human hand. A bald eagle can exert upwards of 400 pounds per square inch (psi). Great Horned Owls have a 500 psi grip, Philippine Eagles have a psi higher than 500, harpy Eagles have a 503-598 psi grip, gold Eagles have a 400-791 psi grip, and bald Eagles have a reported psi up to 823, though Hawk Quest notes it’s more likely a Bald Eagle’s grip pressure is between 300 to 400 psi.
The data indicate psi gripping strength varies among raptors, but the number is the average from several references.
These numbers are not scientifically proven but help illustrate a point about the power of a bald eagle’s grip.
Dangerous Anaconda
There are four types of anacondas in the world: the green anaconda, the yellow anaconda, the dark-spotted anaconda, and the Bolivian anaconda. The green anaconda is the largest and heaviest known snake in the world. Green anacondas can grow more than 30 feet in length and weigh up to 227 kg. Anacondas belong to the family of non-venomous constrictors. Anacondas coil their heavy-built body around the prey and squeeze it to death. Then they swallow the dead prey whole. The size of the prey does not matter for anacondas. They can squeeze even large prey such as wild pigs, jaguars, and caimans.
Due to being heavyweight, anacondas are cumbersome and sluggish on land, but what they lack in terrestrial swiftness, they more than make up for with sheer stealth in the water. And that’s why the massive serpents hunt mostly while venturing deep inside their watery domains. Additionally, the snake’s right and left jaws are separated down the joint, and they’re perfectly independent. This means that the anaconda will unhinge its mobile jaws, use them alternately while swallowing large prey, and walk its head around and over the victim, always starting with the head and ending with the legs, all while employing more than 100 backward-facing teeth.
Strong Bear: Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear is one of the most massive and powerful animals in the world. They are found in various inhabitants across Canada and the Northwestern United States. Grizzly bears can reach a maximum height of 2.5 meters and weigh up to 350 kg. They have a big head, 6-inch claws, and a muscular hump. They also have strong teeth, and their bite force measures 1200 pounds per square inch. Such a sharp bite could even crush a bowling ball. In fact, this immensely powerful animal can beat any animal in a fight.
Grizzly bears are very strong when compared to a man. According to a rough estimate, they are as strong as six men. Even a small cub weighing 100 pounds would probably be stronger than the strongest athlete. It has huge muscles, which make it able to lift about 500 kg, 0.8 times its own body weight. A full-grown grizzly bear can easily lift a rock of around 300 kg with just one paw.
Ox
They are also known as bullocks in some countries, a larger and stronger breed of cattle. Oxen have been working as draft animals since 4000 B.C. Oxen are commonly adult males. They have a body length between 2 and 2.3 meters and weigh up to 640 kg. Oxen are strong enough to carry a weight up to 800 kg. Oxen are mainly used for plowing fields and pulling carts. Oxen are also considered a symbol of strength, stability, and determination.
Like horses, oxen are draft animals used for, among other things, plowing and pulling carts or wagons. An ox is actually nothing more than a specially trained dairy or beef steer. They’re a great power source with relatively low costs related to the equipment they use and their upkeep. “As strong as an ox.”
This expression highlights the similarities between the strength of an ox in pulling a plow, or some other piece of machinery, and the strength of an individual person. This is a colloquial expression, as it is only used in informal dialogue and texts. An example of this for Chinese people may be the Chinese currency being called “Kuai” informally, but “Yuan” formally.
Hippopotamuses
Hippopotamuses are large, round, water-loving animals that are native to Africa. The word “hippopotamus” comes from the Greek word for “water horse” or “river horse,” although hippos and horses aren’t closely related.
At first glance, the hippopotamus may seem like a placid, lumbering, veggie-munching softy, but when disturbed, it is one of the most dangerous creatures in the animal kingdom. To understand just how dangerous they are, it is necessary to fully appreciate the hippo’s sheer size. The average hippo can weigh anywhere between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds, and scientists have recorded some individuals with twice that weight. With the ability to open its mouth at a 180-degree angle, the hippopotamus has a bite that exerts around 1,800 pounds of force per square inch.
Hippos are loud animals. Their snorts, grumbles, and wheezes have been measured at 115 decibels, according to the San Diego Zoo—about the same volume you’d hear when 15 feet from the speakers at a rock concert. The animals’ signature noise, called the “wheeze honk,” can be heard from more than half a mile away. These booming creatures also use subsonic vocalizations to communicate.
Wild animal: Tiger
Tigers are the strongest and largest members of the cat family. They inhabit swamps, rainforests, and grasslands across Southeast Asia. There are ten recognized subspecies of tiger in the world. The Siberian tiger is the largest of the family. An adult Siberian tiger would measure 75-91 inches in length and up to 306 kg in weight. Tigers have mighty jaws and 30 teeth in total. The upper canines of the tigers reach up to a length of 10 centimeters, designed for tearing flesh. Tigers are fearsome hunters and can carry up to twice their body weight.
While the Bengal tigers are 10.5 feet long and weigh about 570 pounds. So the Siberian tiger is stronger than the Bengal tiger, due to its large size. Tigers are quite adaptable and live in diverse habitats. They are agile land predators, proficient climbers, and, unlike most big cats, great swimmers too. Its strength has been observed on many accounts. On another occasion, it was reported that a tiger carried a full-grown horse for 500 meters, and another carried an adult heifer up a 12-foot-high embankment.
Wild Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest primates in the world. They are known for their remarkable strength. Gorillas can reach 1.75 meters and weigh up to 200 kg. Compared to human beings, the arms of gorillas are very large and strong. They can carry a weight up to 2 tons, which is ten times more than their body weight. The arm span of adult male gorillas measures between 2.2 and 2.6 meters. Gorillas follow knuckle walking to balance their weight. Climbing and knuckle walking make their arms stronger. In fact, an adult male gorilla is 15-20 times stronger than a human.
Gorillas must eat a lot of meat to fuel such size and strength, right? Surprisingly, gorillas are primarily herbivores. There is some variation in diet amongst the different gorilla subspecies, but their diets typically include foliage, fruit, and other plant material. The leaves and foliage that gorillas rely on are low in nutrients, so they must eat a large volume to meet their needs. Eastern and western lowland gorillas also occasionally eat ants and termites. So, how strong are gorillas? According to the Guinness World Records, the most weight a gorilla is on record lifting is 1,800 pounds! Some hypotheses have suggested that gorillas can lift up to 10 times their body weight. To put that into perspective, the average American male can lift 0.87 times his body weight.
African Bush Elephant
These strong animals are the largest living land animals in the world. African bush elephants and African forest elephants are two species in the family. African bush elephants are the largest of all mammals on Earth. They are bigger and stronger than Asian elephants. African bush elephants can be 8-13 feet in height and weigh up to 7 tons. African bush elephants can lift up to a weight of 9 tons. Their trunk is also very strong. It contains more than 40000 muscles and tendons and can carry 200 kg of weight.
Also referred to as the Savanna Elephant, the African Bush Elephant is only second to the Giraffe in terms of height! An ideal meal for the African bush elephant consists of plenty of grass, fruit, and roots. They spend most of their day eating, as they need to consume a large amount to consume sufficient calories for their large bodies. Leaves and branches are stripped off trees using their powerful trunk, and their tusks can be used for digging and for scraping bark. African bush elephants have flat teeth specifically designed to break down and help them digest plant matter.
Leafcutter Ant
The 2.1 cm long leafcutter ants are some of the most incredibly strong creatures in the world. This small ant can carry objects that are 50 times heavier than their body weight. The leafcutter ants can also cover remarkable distances while carrying the weight. Leafcutter ants are also called ‘parasol ants’ because of the unique way they carry the leaf pieces. Leafcutter ants don’t feed on leaves. Instead, they use the leaf pieces as fertilizer to cultivate fungi.
The tiny critters cut leaves into more manageable pieces using nothing but their own jaws. They have special chainsaw mandibles—unique to this species of ant—that can vibrate a thousand times per second.
It’s no wonder why the leafcutter ant is widely considered a major crop pest. They’re diligent, tireless, and incredibly hardworking critters, able to strip a tree of every last bit of foliage in less than 24 hours. Studies show that more than 17 percent of leaf production by plants surrounding a leafcutter ant colony goes directly into their colossal, fungus-growing nest.
Rhinoceros Beetle
Considering the amount of weight that can be carried by an animal related to its weight, rhinoceros beetles are the second strongest animals on Earth. They can carry objects that are 850 times heavier than their body weight. It is like a human of average size carrying a weight of 65 tons.
Ounce for ounce, a rhino beetle is the second strongest animal on the planet, after the dung beetle. Rodger Kram, a physiologist at the University of California at Berkeley, tested a rhino beetle’s strength in his lab. He found that they could carry 100 times their own weight but could hardly move. With 40 times their weight, they could walk for ten minutes before reaching exhaustion.
But at 30 times their own weight, they went for 30 minutes with no sign of fatigue. They can reach up to a length of 6 inches. Male rhinoceros beetles have two remarkable horns, one on their head and the other pointing from their thorax. The horns of this species of beetle look like rhinos. According to Kram, “The beetles’ feat is comparable to a 150-pound man walking a mile with a Cadillac on his head without tiring.”
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Dung Beetle
After months of grueling tests, a species of horned dung beetle takes the title of the world’s strongest insect.
The half-inch-long dung beetles are the strongest living creatures on Earth. The male insects of this small species of insects can lift objects that are 1141 times heavier than their body weight. It is just like an average-sized human carrying 80 tons. The dung beetle develops such extraordinary strength through the unusual competition for mates. Dung beetles use their horns to fight with their potential rivals. Such fights help the dung beetles to improve their strength. As the name indicates, the diverse group of dung beetles feeds on the excrement of animals.
The beetles aren’t the dung-ball-carrying variety, and instead the females bury most of the fecal material with a little help from males from, say, cow droppings. The females build little tunnels where they use the dung to lay their eggs in. It’s in this tunnel where mating and the pre-mating fights between waiting males take place. But not all males are equipped for battle, with some sporting horns and others hornless. The no-horn beetles instead wait at the tunnel’s entrance, sometimes hiding out in self-built side tunnels, and sneak into mates before getting caught by a horned male.
The horned males, on the other hand, duke it out head-to-head.
Whales
Whales can claim the title of the strongest creature on the planet simply due to their enormous size. Although unable to lift, grip, or kick, they do need an enormous amount of force to power their massive bodies through the water. This movement is facilitated by two large muscle groups near their tail: the epaxial muscles for the upstroke and the hypaxial muscles for the downstroke. The blue whale is not only the largest animal in the world, weighing in at about 200 tons, but it is one of the most powerful as well. Blue whales can generate 600 horsepower, which is the same as many top-tier cars such as the Aston Martin DB11 and the Porsche 911 Turbo. In addition, they can travel easily at speeds up to 23 miles per hour for long distances, and they can move at least 30 tons through the water.
Jaguars
The jaw muscles of a jaguar are the strongest of all the big cats. A jaguar is so powerful that it can beat a crocodile with a single fatal bite. With its bite force and strong jaw muscles, it can easily pierce the shells of armored prey turtles and tortoises and the armored skin of crocodiles. A jaguar can also easily crush the beef bones. In terms of biting force and jaw muscle strength, the jaguar is the strongest of all cats. However, in terms of moving weight, dragging a carcass, or lifting it into a tree, the lion is the strongest cat. The bite of a jaguar is strong enough to pierce the shells of turtles and tortoises and the armored skin of crocodiles. A jaguar kills mammalian prey with a single fatal bite directly through the skull, crushing the skull bones and reaching the brain. Jaguars have strong jaws because of the arrangement of their jaw muscles, which are slightly stronger than those of the other big cats relative to their body weight. Additionally, the jaws of a jaguar are also slightly shorter than those of the other big cats relative to body weight, which increases its leverage for biting. The bite of a jaguar is stronger than that of a lion.
Bovines
Due to their immense strength, bovines were domesticated by humans thousands of years ago for the purpose of towing carts, plows, and other materials. As one of the largest bovines, the African buffalo is an immense beast that can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. When they feel threatened, buffaloes have been known to tip over large vehicles or charge at animals or people. With their powerful muscles, intimidating horns, and defensive posture, more people die of bovine attacks every year than from almost any other animal. Bovines comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including domestic cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship between the members of the group is still debated, and their classification into loose tribes rather than formal subgroups reflects this uncertainty. In many countries, bovid milk and meat are used as food by humans. Cattle are kept as livestock almost everywhere except in parts of India and Nepal, where they are considered sacred by most Hindus. Bovids are used as draft animals and as riding animals.
Lion
The lion is considered one of the strongest animals in its habitat. The other predators, such as the leopard, cheetah, and hyenas, are no match for the strong lion, who can kill a hyena with a blow of its paw. Based on limb long bone dimensions measuring medial lateral diameter, the lion’s forelimb is 1.56 times stronger than the human arm, and the hind limb is 1.22 times stronger than the human leg. Lions have a bite force of only 650 PSI, which is not much stronger than the hardest-biting domestic dog, the English mastiff.
However, hyenas usually only attack and kill cubs and avoid confrontations with adult lions. That is not a surprise since only one adult male lion is as strong as 20 hyenas combined. Violence is not unknown to them. One strike with its powerful paw is enough to cripple any man. Female lions are not stronger than males. In the pride hierarchy, males are at the top, and they are the ones who protect the whole pride against potential enemies.
Zebra
Zebras are not necessarily stronger than all horse breeds but certainly have a nice, stocky, solid body. Between the well-known force behind the kick of a red kangaroo and a giraffe, you might be surprised to read that the zebra beats them both. When threatened, an adult zebra can kill a fully grown male African lion with a single blow to the body. Though it is difficult to get a precise measurement, it is thought that a zebra can kick with nearly 3,000 pounds of force.
Zebras are primarily grazers and can subsist on lower-quality vegetation. They are preyed on mainly by lions and typically flee when threatened but also bite and kick. Zebra species differ in social behavior, with plains and mountain zebras living in stable harems consisting of an adult male or stallion, several adult females or mares, and their young or foals, while Grévy’s zebras live alone or in loosely associated herds. Zebras possess strong upper and lower incisors for cropping grasses and large high-crowned teeth for processing silicate-rich grasses that wear down molars.
Goliath Grouper
They can grow to be up to nine feet long. And the largest recorded size of one of these massive fish is 800 pounds—that’s about the weight of a female moose! The base of the soft dorsal and anal fins is covered with scales and thick skin.
They are known to eat just about anything in the ocean, and they are big and strong enough to even eat sharks. This biggest animal has been known to attack octopuses, sea turtles, barracudas, and even human divers. Fishermen who want a serious challenge often seek out goliath groupers because their enormous size and relative strength make them extremely difficult to land. Let’s enjoy some facts about this creature.
The goliath grouper is capable of producing a loud booming noise, which may be used to defend territory or during courtship. This species was formerly called the “jewfish.”. It can live to be about 37 years of age and possibly longer.
Due to short dive times at depths of 100 feet or more, there have been few recorded observations of the courtship of the goliath grouper. This has severely restricted researchers’ ability to study the reproductive behavior of the species.
Hyena
You may underestimate the hyena as an animal that only feeds on leftovers from other animals. The truth is, most times, they find food themselves by hunting. They have exceptionally powerful jaws.
As befitting mammals that can eat, chew, and digest solid bone, spotted hyenas are equipped with massive skulls, disproportionately large trunks and forelimbs, and powerful bites that can rip through carcasses with up to 1,000 pounds of force per square inch. Logically enough, spotted hyenas can count among their ancestors the “bone-crushing dogs” of the later Cenozoic Era, such as Borophagus, relentless predators that could crush the skull of an Indricotherium as easily as a prehistoric grape—and evolutionarily speaking, spotted hyenas are not all that far removed from the mastiffs discussed previously.
These medium-sized safari animals are known for having ferocious bites. Hyenas can actually bite with twice the power of a grizzly bear, which is more powerful than lions and tigers. Their jaw pressure is superior to that of all other mammals.
A 63.1 kg spotted hyena is estimated to have a bite force of 565.7 newtons at the canine tip and 985.5 newtons at the carnassial eocene. One individual in a study was found to exert a bite force of 4,500 newtons on the measuring instruments.
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Mountain Goat
Here’s an animal that wouldn’t stand a chance against much of this list on flat ground, or even in your typical mountain environment. But just try to hunt a mountain goat on the highest, rockiest peaks and see how well that goes. These are the world’s best rock climbers and thus some truly elusive prey.
Mountain goats technically aren’t goats! They have long fur along their spines, rumps, shoulders, and necks that stand up to at least eight inches in length.
Mountain goats are adapted to living in their mountainous habitats—one example is their toes. Their hooves have hard shells and spongy foot pads that keep them from slipping, allowing them to stand on very small cracks. They are also very muscular with strong shoulders for climbing and digging for food in the winter through large mounds of snow.
Their cloven hooves have a padded bottom to grip on snow, ice, and especially rock faces, even ones that appear to be impossible to climb. Mountain goats can jump 12 feet and are acclimated to both high altitudes and low temperatures.
And that’s your lot for our pick of the world’s strongest animals. What do you think—did any surprise you?