5 Largest animals #2

So Last week I posted about the 5 largest animals found on earth and yet found the list to be incomplete. Here are 5 more animals which are large and massive.

Giraffe

Giraffe | wikimedia Commons

Giraffes are the tallest terrestrial animals in the world. It stands 5-6 meters tall and weighs 1600 kg while its new born itself can be 1.8 meters tall and within hours run. Giraffes has distinct elongated neck which can be 2 meters in length and long legs. It has distinctive coat pattern and ossicones, the horn like on its head. Giraffes inhabit savannas, grasslands and open woodlands. Their primary food is acacia leaves and eats 34kg of foliage each day. Though in 2010 Giraffes population was 80,000, some of its species are endangered. Nubian Giraffe is threatened with as few as only 250 remaining. Lifespan of Giraffe is 25 years.[source]

Southern Elephant Seal

Southern Elephant seal | Wikimedia commons

The southern elephant seal is the largest carnivore alive, with males even larger than the polar bear. They are found in Antarctica region and coasts of Chile. Lost individuals have reportedly be found at Mauritius. They are 3 meters long and weighs over 3000 kg. On birth, the pup may weigh 40 Kg. Southern elephant seals feed on squids and other fishes and may go upto 1000m deep to hunt the prey. They are also deepest diving air-breathing non-cetaceans. Their average lifespan is 14-22years. [source]

Golden crowned flying fox

Stretched Golden crowned flying fox | Wikimedia Commons

Golden crown flying fox is a mega bat, and one of the largest bat found on earth. It is also known as golden-capped fruit bat. It can be seen in the forests of phillipines. It has no tail, has wingspan of 1.5 meters, 55 cm long and weighs around 1 kg. It feeds on fruits, mainly fig and leaves. Just like other bats they are nocturnal, and occupy uninhabited regions. They can travel upto 40 km in search of food.
However, The Large Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus) is lesser in weight and smaller in length, but it has been known to exceed the Golden-crowned species in wingspan. [source]

Chinese Giant Salamander

Chinese Giant Salamander | Wikimedia Commons 

Chinese Giant Salamander found in rocky, mountain streams and lakes in China is the largest salamander and the largest amphibian. It has large head, small eyes and dark wrinkly skin. On average it can weigh 25-30kg and 1.15 meter in length. It feeds on insects, frogs and fish. They are known to vocalize sounds similar to barking, hissing and crying which shows striking resemblance to the crying of young human child. The giant salamanders, which once used to be recorded at 6 feet in length, now rarely, if ever, reach this size due to overhunting and resulting natural selection favoring smaller salamanders. [source]

Ocean Sunfish

Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) | Wikimedia Commons

The largest living 'bony fish' is the widely distributed ocean sunfish also known as 'Mola Mola'. It appears like fish-head with a tail with its main body flattened laterally. The mature ocean sunfish has an average length of 1.8 m , a fin-to-fin length of 2.5 m and an average weight of 1,000 kg. Some individuals having upto 3.3 m length, 4.2 m  across the fins and weighing upto 2,300 kg have been observed.

There are two kinds of fishes or you can say two taxonomic groups called Osteichthyes and Cartilaginous. The vast majority of fish are osteichthyes, which is an extremely diverse and abundant group consisting of over 29,000 species. It is the largest class of vertebrates in existence today. [source]