Physical strength can make the difference between life and death in the natural world.
The strongest males of many animal species are the ones who get mates and food.
The strongest animals can defend themselves against predators and survive longer than
weaker ones.
Today, we are still preoccupied with matters of physical strength even though our modern-day
existence does not require much of it.
One way to determine the strength of an animal is by determining the amount of weight it
can lift.
However, in the wild, it is far more complicated than that, as we will see, in this episode
of The Infographics Show, “Strongest animals for their size and their abilities.”
10.
Elephants Elephants are larger than any of the other
animals we will discuss today, but they are also the weakest relative to their size.
One source states they can weigh up to 7 tons (7000 kg), but they cannot lift much more
beyond their own body weight.
The most they can lift is 9 tons (9000 kg), which is 1.7 times its own weight.
9.
Tigers Tigers are stronger than elephants because
they have the ability to drag prey that weighs twice as much they do up into the trees.
A Telegraph article states that tigers weigh “close to 300 kg (661.4 lbs.),” but they
can “carry double their body weight at about 540 kg (1190.5 lbs.).”
8.
Humans Humans made it into our discussion of the
world’s strongest animals in part because of World’s Strongest Man Champions like
Eddie Hall and his 1102.3 lb (500kg) deadlift, which the Independent reported caused him
to pass out and burst blood vessels in his head.
Given that Hall weighs 410 lbs. (186 kg), he was lifting more than 2.5 times his body
weight, which makes him slightly stronger than a tiger.
However, there are two female athletes whose strength relative to their size surpasses
that of Hall.
Earlier this year, a competitive fitness magazine called Boxrox reported that powerlifter Stefanie
(Stefi) Cohen was able to lift 545.6 lbs. (247.5 kg).
Cohen weighs only 124.8 lb. (56.6kg), so this means she was able to lift 4.3 times her own
bodyweight.
However, Cohen’s impressive lift falls a little short of the 2016 record set by Chen
Wei-Ling, who won an Olympic bronze weightlifting medal for Taiwan in 2008.
According to one source, Chen, who weighs only about 103 lbs. (46.75 kg), successfully
performed a 463 lb. (210kg) single-ply squat, which is 4.5 times her bodyweight.
And if we take unofficial records into consideration, weightlifter Paul Anderson could be considered
the strongest man in the world.
Anderson had an outstanding career as an amateur weightlifter and even won an Olympic gold
medal in weightlifting for the US in 1956.
In 1957, he supposedly back lifted 6,270 lbs. (2844 kg), but controversy overshadowed his
amazing feat of strength.
A strength training website called Barbend notes that Anderson’s lift “was entered
into the Guinness Book of World Records” as the “greatest weight ever raised by a
human being,” but it was later removed “due to insufficient witnesses.”
If it did actually occur, it would mean that Anderson, who weighed between 330-360 lbs.
(149.7-163.3 kg) during his career, would have lifted about 17-19 times his body weight!
This would have made him even stronger than the next two animals we will discuss.
7.
African crowned eagle The African crowned eagle may not be the largest
eagle in the world, but it is arguably the strongest when you consider its size and ability.
According to the Kloof Conservancy Bioguide, the adult female of the species is larger
than the adult male.
The mass of female African crowned eagles is 10.4 lbs. (4.7 kg), while males weigh about
9 lbs. (4.1 kg).
They are capable of capturing prey of up to 66 lbs. (30kg), which means that they can
lift prey that is about 6 to 7.3 times their bodyweight!
Their diet consists of mammals such as hyraxes, vervet monkeys, and small antelope.
This powerful eagle also made it on Mother Nature Network’s list of “5 birds that
could steal your toddler.”
The article states that African crowned eagles have been known to “occasionally attack
or eat human children,” including “an early human child whose remains were discovered
in a cave at Taung, South Africa, in 1924.”
6.
Gorillas According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),
gorillas are the “largest living primates” and live in central and east Africa.
They may “share 98.3% of their DNA with humans,” but gorillas are much stronger
than people.
The Telegraph notes that a male gorilla can “weigh 200kg (440.9 lb.),” but it can
lift 2 tons (2000 kg), which is “10 times its bodyweight.”
One source notes that an “adult male gorilla is 15-20 times stronger than a human.”
5.
Leafcutter Ants According to the Oakland Zoo, these dark red
ants are approximately 0.7 in.
or 18 mm in length.
They survive by cutting leaves that are crushed and processed to help grow the only fungus
they feed on, which is called Leucocoprineae.
The Telegraph states that they can carry leaves that “weigh 50 times their meager bodyweight,”
which is the “equivalent of a human lifting two and a half tons.”
4.
Asian Weaver Ants An educational website called antArk states
that the weaver ant is found in Australia and Southeast Asia.
These ants range in size from 0.19-0.2 in.
(5-6mm) for worker ants to about 0.3-0.4 in.
(8-10mm) for major worker ants.
The length of the queen ant is around 0.8-1 in.
(20-25 mm).
They have “strong mandibles” that “allow for a painful slicing bite,” and they “spray
formic acid into any wounds.”
It is these powerful mandibles that allowed an Asian weaver ant to hold a 500 mg weight,
which Popular Science states is “100 times its body weight.”
University of Cambridge researchers photographed the ant’s impressive feat, which was done
while the ant was hanging upside down, and the picture won them first prize in a science
photo contest.
3.
Rhinoceros Beetles The National Wildlife Federation describes
rhinoceros beetles as large insects that can “grow up to six inches (15 centimeters)”
and can be “found on every continent except Antarctica.”
They get their name from the fact that the male beetles have long horns on their heads,
one of which bears a strong resemblance to a rhinoceros horn.
A Popular Mechanics article states that these beetles “have received popular acclaim as
perhaps the proportionally strongest creatures on Earth, with some species said to be able
to lift over 800 times their weight.”
2.
Dung Beetles Dung beetles live, eat, and reproduce in manure.
According to the San Diego Zoo, they are scarabs and range in size from .5 inches (1.3 cm)
to 2.5 in (6.3 cm).
The journal Science reports that the horned dung beetle (Onthophagus Taurus) is the strongest
insect in the world, pulling up to 1,141 times its own body weight.
This amount was determined with an experiment involving researchers “gluing a cotton thread
to the beetles’ hard wing-cases, stringing the thread across a pulley, and tying it to
a miniature bucket, to which they added drops of water.”
1.
Oribatid Mite Finally, the strongest land creature on Earth
is the oribatid mite.
It is not an insect but an arthropod, which one source describes as a creature “related
to – but distinct from – insects.”
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the oribatid mite lives in forest humus and soil
and feeds on algae, fungi, or decaying material.
A BBC article reports that this microscopic creature weighing 100 μg (0.1 mg) “can
hold 1,180 times its own weight and pull 540 times its own mass with its claws.”
You may have noticed that the strongest animals in the world also are also some of the smallest.
Why is this the case?
This is due to what the BBC article calls a “quirk of physics.”
Bigger animals have to devote of most of their strength to moving their own weight around.
This is not the case with smaller animals.
Less body mass means they can “dedicate more of their muscle power to weightlifting.”
Besides lifting ability, what other qualities make an animal strong?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called What If Animals Went To With Humans!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!