From the largest to the smallest, the fastest to the slowest to the downright bizarre, the world is crawling with record-setting wildlife! Here, the animals editor from Guinness World Records reveals his favourites…
Guinness World Records isn’t just about extraordinary humans. Since our first edition in 1955, animals have always been among our most popular record holders. In fact, in a way, Guinness World Records owes its existence to a bird? The book came about after Sir Hugh Beaver – then manager of the Guinness Brewing Company – got into a debate with friends over which is Europe’s fastest game bird.
Over the years we’ve been lucky enough to verify everything from tall dogs, skateboarding cats, dinky donkeys, leaping llamas and even basketball-playing bunnies. But our records go far beyond extreme pets and farm animals.
In our latest book, Guinness World Records: Wild Things (opposite), we turn the spotlight on the ‘super-beasts’ of the natural world. It was fascinating to delve into our archives of wild wonders. This feature celebrates a handful of the stars from the book, including a few familiar faces from the conservation world…
Size matters
BLUE WHALE
Balaenoptera musculus
Class Mammalia
Territory All oceans except the Arctic
Diet Krill, copepods and occasionally small fish
lifespan 80–90 years
adult weight 160–190 tons
Conservation Status
ENDANGERED
Blue whale
A feature about record-breaking animals wouldn’t be complete without this behemoth. It’s not only the largest animal alive today; it’s the largest animal ever to live on our planet. To put that into context, the average adult blue whale tips the scales at over 160 tons – based on some estimates, that’s more than twice the weight of the heaviest known dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus!
Given their prodigious proportions, it’s little wonder that these all-time giants of giants have enough records to fill a book of their own. They boast the largest heart (with arteries wide enough for a human to swim through), the largest lungs and the heaviest tongue, weighing about the same as an African bush elephant, the largest animal on land.
Even a new-born – you guessed it, the largest offspring of all animals – weighs roughly the same as a full-grown white rhino and is twice the length!
If this feature whets your appetite for record-breaking wildlife, check out Guinness World Records: Wild Things – out now in bookstores and on Amazon. It’s packed with loads more super-beasts, amazing photography and insightful Q&As with the world’s most-loved naturalists, including Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall, Jane Goodall and the Irwin family.
My favourite animal record…
“The saltwater croc
