Curated category
Herbivorous mammals
- CattleCattle have the largest biomass of any animal species on Earth, roughly 400 million tonnes of living flesh. That places them ahead of Antarctic krill at 379…
- SheepSheep recognize and remember the faces of fifty other sheep for over two years. That finding, reported in 2001 by Kenneth M.
- HorseThe horse, Equus ferus caballus, travels on the same bones a human would use to walk on tiptoe. It carries an average weight of 500 kg on a single toe per…
- ElephantElephants are the largest living land animals on Earth, and yet a single one of them can crack open a peanut shell with its trunk without breaking the seed…
- African buffaloThe African buffalo carries two nicknames that say everything about its reputation: "the Black Death" and "the widowmaker." Wounded animals have been…
- GoatThe goat was one of the first animals humans ever domesticated. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats, dating back 10,000 years, were found at Ganj…
- ElkElk, known to science as Cervus canadensis, stand as the second largest member of the deer family. A mature bull can weigh close to 500 kg, carry antlers…
- PronghornThe pronghorn can run 55 miles per hour over half a mile, faster than anything else on land in the Americas. It outpaces every predator that lives alongside…
- RabbitRabbits have been sentenced to death by a name. On the Isle of Portland in Dorset, older residents still refuse to say the word "rabbit" aloud, substituting…
- GiraffeA giraffe can land a blow with its head powerful enough to break another giraffe's jaw, snap its neck, or kill it outright.
- HippopotamusThe hippopotamus - whose name comes from the Ancient Greek for "river horse" - is one of the stranger animals alive on Earth today.