Chinese giant salamander
Salamanders are the largest amphibians in the world, with the largest measuring 1.2 metres long and weighing around 22 kilos, hailing from China. Similar to most amphibians, salamanders spend their lives underwater. But these guys don’t have gills. Instead, their wrinkly skin absorbs oxygen to help them breathe.
Polar bear
To find the largest land carnivores in the world, you need to travel to the Arctic. Female polar bears can weigh up to 300 kilos and males up to 600. In comparison, a newborn polar bear cub weighs merely half a kilo. Although it looks white, their fur is transparent, their skin black and they have a blue tongue. To fill those large bellies, the world’s largest roaming land carnivore spends 50 per cent of its life travelling across sea ice in search of food. But with sea ice rapidly receding due to climate change, the plight of the polar bear is in sharp decline and has been listed as vulnerable on the threatened species list.
Check out these other animals that are holding extinction at bay by the slimmest of margins.
African bush elephant
In the African savannahs, deserts and high rainforests live the world’s largest land mammal. Sustaining over 9000 kilos of weight, African bush elephants only eat plants, grass and fruit – 150 kilos of it a day! Elephants can use their trunks (which contain more than 40,000 muscles) to lift anything up to 180 kilos. Unfortunately, the largest land animal doesn’t have the largest population; 25,000 elephants die because of poaching every year.
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Source: RD.com
