• Question: Except from human, what is the most powerful animal in the world?why?

    Asked by 35yarders to Donna, Jo, Mark, Stuart, timcraggs on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      This is an excellent question and the answer could depend upon how you define powerful – do you mean strong or how well is can control it’s environment?

      If you mean strong, I would say that the blue whale is fairly awesome, but in terms of controlling their environment and others around them I would suggest gorillas or chimpanzees

    • Photo: Mark Lancaster

      Mark Lancaster answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Do you mean power in terms of strength or power in terms of exploiting the environment (and others) to the best effect and is that strength relative to body mass ?

      If it’s the latter then here is a list http://scienceray.com/biology/top-10-strongest-animals-compared-to-body-weight/

    • Photo: Joanna Buckley

      Joanna Buckley answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Against most things, us humans wouldn’t stand a chance!

      Put it this way, I wouldn’t like to get into one-to-one mortal combat with a whale, a snake, a lion, a polar bear, a tiger, a rhino or a swarm of wasps.

      I could probably take on a snail though.

    • Photo: Tim Craggs

      Tim Craggs answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      That is an interesting question, and I think the answer depends on how you define “powerful”.

      If you mean dominating, in a population sense, then I think beetles do quite well.
      If you mean strongest, then I am not sure, perhaps Donna will tell us?

Comments

  • Photo: Jon

    Jon commented on :

    Nope, I think you’re all wrong.

    The toughest animal in the world is a tiny creature called a tardigrade (also known as a “water bear” or “moss piglet”), which is probably living in the gutter on your roof right now. But don’t be fooled by its cute, mild-mannered appearance. Underneath, it is actually the superhero of the animal kingdom.

    Why? Because tardigrades can withstand being frozen in liquid helium, being boiled, being squeezed by pressure ten times greater than at the bottom of the deepest ocean trench, being zapped with X-rays that would kill any other animal, live without water for a century, and even survive in a vacuum. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s true.

    They do this by going into a state of “suspended animation” when conditions are tough, which makes them almost “indestructible” (at least compared with other animals). Figuring out how they do that is actually helping people come up with ways of storing human organs for transplants, so patients needing transplants don’t have to wait for the right donor organs to become available.

    And if we could learn to do the same trick for our whole bodies, then perhaps we could “sleep” for the long journeys as sub-light speeds to other stars, just like in the start of the movie Avatar.

    Not bad for something living on your rooftop, eh?

  • Photo: Jo

    Jo commented on :

    That’s pretty impressive, Jon.

    You could probably easily squish it though, couldn’t you? It might survive extreme pressures but will it survive being trampled on? Not that you’d want to but if you were so inclined.

    I’m guessing you couldn’t stamp on a rhino.