While we have seen the largest creatures on Earth many of them were water based. Today we take a look at the land mammals. The largest creatures to walk on Earth and while there aren’t many surprises who is on this list, their order might just surprise you…
The Top 10 Heaviest Terrestrial Mammals Who Walk the Earth
10 – Cape buffalo – Average weight: 1,000 kg/2,200 Ib
The African buffalo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild water buffalo of Asia and its ancestry remains unclear.
9 – Water buffalo – Average weight: 1,000 kg/2,200 Ib
The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, South America and some African countries.
8 – American bison – Average weight: 1,000 kg/2,200 Ib
The American bison or simply bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds.
7 – Gaur – Average weight: 1,360 kg/2,940 Ib
The gaur, also called the Indian bison, is the largest extant bovine. This species is native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986.
[adinserter block=”7″]
6 – Hippopotamus – Average weight: 1,500 kg/3,000 Ib
The common hippopotamus, or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous, semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus.
5 – Black rhinoceros – Average weight: 1,810 kg/4,000 Ib
The black rhinoceros or hook-lipped rhinoceros is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern and southern Africa including Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
4 – Giraffe – Average weight: 1,930 kg/4,255 Ib
The giraffe is a genus of African even-toed ungulate mammals, the tallest living terrestrial animals and the largest ruminants. The genus currently consists of one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, the type species.
3 – White rhinoceros – Average weight: 2,300 kg/5,000 Ib
The white rhinoceros or square-lipped rhinoceros is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species
[adinserter block=”8″]
2 – Asian elephant – Average weight: 4,500 kg/10,000 Ib
The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is distributed in Southeast Asia from India and Nepal in the west to Borneo in the east.
1 – African elephant – Average weight: 5,900 kg/13,000 Ib
African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta. The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, L. africana, and the smaller African forest elephant, L. cyclotis.
