African elephants can weigh up to 13,000 pounds (nearly 6,000 kilograms). They're so big and strong, they can push trees around. That's often how they sharpen their tusks.
Elephants have tiny brown hairs on their skin. They have big ears, which they can flap. That's how they cool themselves down in the hot African weather. They also have a trunk. The trunk is like the combination of a nose an an arm. They are used to smell things. A trunk can also pick things up. Elephants eat and drinking by picking up food and water with their trunk and putting it in their mouth. They can also use it to trumpet, a sound that elephants make to communicate with other elephants, to let them know where they are or warn them of danger. The big white things next to their trunk are called tusks, which they use to defend themselves from predators.
2. Tallest animal
Answer: Giraffe
Giraffes can grow to over 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall. This enables them to eat leaves that most land animals can't reach. It also helps them spot danger from miles away. The downside is that it's harder for them to drink, which makes them more vulnerable to predators that wait at the water hole to attack animals while they drink.
Giraffes are herbivores and mostly eat leaves. Each giraffe has a unique pattern of spots on its body which is how they know who is who. Giraffes live mostly in Africa. Lions, leopards, and wild dogs are their main predators.
3. Fastest (anywhere)
Answer: Peregrine falcon
Peregrine falcons live in trees or on skyscrapers. When hunting, they can dive at speeds up to 180 MPH (over 300 km/h). The prey doesn't know what hit them until it's too late.
Peregrine falcons mainly eat smaller birds such as ducks, pigeons, and doves. They have a very sharp tip on their beak that acts like a knife and severs the throats of their prey.
4. Fastest land animal
Answer: Cheetah
Cheetahs can run up to 70 MPH (over 100 km/h) over short distances. That makes it difficult for their prey to get away from them. The prey have their ways, though. Impala run in zigzags to confuse the cheetahs. So, cheetahs aren't always successful hunters.
Another downside is that they can only keep that speed up for a short amount of time before becoming tired. A lion or a leopard can easily steal the meal from an exhausted cheetah. Still, that kind of speed is quite useful. Cheetahs mainly live in Africa.
5. Longest living (without re-generating)
Answer: Glass sponge
Many people think turtles are the longest-living animals. That's not even close. The glass sponge can live as long as 15,000 years. They have created sponge reefs off the coast of Northwestern North America, near Alaska, U.S. and British Columbia, Canada. They're the only sponges in the world that have made entire reefs. They generally look like white cups and have very long spikes. Their bodies are made of silicon, one of the primary components of glass, hence the name "glass sponge."
The immortal jellyfish never dies as it regenerates itself.
6. Longest length
Answer: Bootlace worm
The bootlace worm can be as long as 180 feet (55 meters). It uses mucus to defend itself from predators and it uses a proboscis to get food. They mainly live along the coasts of western Europe, in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and along the coasts of the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Germany.
The bootlace worm eats crabs, snails, and dead animals. The bootlace worm has no heart. Its blood is kept in a series of muscles, which contract whenever it moves or swims, and that's how the blood moves throughout its body.
7. Best jumper
Answer: Flea
Fleas can jump up to 150 times their body size. If humans could do that, they could jump over the Empire State Building.
Fleas are parasites that live on the bodies of mammals and birds and drink their blood. Fleas live all over the world. Fleas carried the Black Death: a ten year plague in Europe that killed over 50 million people.
8. Strongest teeth
Answer: Beaver
Beavers are the only animals with teeth strong enough to cut down trees. They do this to build dams, where they live and where they hide from predators. They live in lakes, streams, and rivers in North America and Europe. They are herbivores that eat tree bark, grass, and aquatic plants.
9. Sleeps the most
Answer: Koala
Koalas sleep for up to 22 hours per day. Even human babies don't sleep that much. Koalas are marsupials, which means that they carry their babies in their pouches. Like most marsupials, koalas live in Australia. They live in trees, where they are safe from most predators.
They are herbivores and can eat plants that are toxic to humans and to most animals. They can do this because they have strong digestive systems.
10. Shortest-living (as adults)
Answer: American mayfly
Mayflies live in Southeastern United States, in states like Florida and Georgia. They live for about a year in total, but spend most of their life as larvae. They live in the water, usually on rocks, and they eat algae. They usually spend a few months in this stage but some of them are in this stage for a year or longer.
The second stage of their life is called subimago, where they resemble adults except they're not ready to reproduce yet. Their bodies are long and thin like a cherry stem. They have two sets of wings: large triangular forewings and smaller hindwings which are harder to notice because they are usually at rest.
Their last stage is the imago stage, when they are full adults. This stage rarely lasts more than 30 minutes. Their mouths do not work and they are incapable of eating in this stage. All they can do during this stage is reproduce. The male dies as soon as reproduction is over. The female dies not live for more than five minutes after laying the eggs.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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