Amazing animals: Guinness Book Of Records special pull-out.

MIND-BOGGLING MEASUREMENTS

Biggest animal

The blue whale begins life as an ovum weighing a fraction of a milligram and grows to an average weight of 26 tonnes by the age of 12 months. New- born calves weigh up to three tonnes.

Biggest rodent

The capybara of northern South America has a head and body length of 41/2ft and can weigh up to 12st 4lb. One cage-fat specimen weighed 17st 8lb.

Biggest land mammal

The largest specimen on record was a bull elephant shot in Angola in 1974. The beast stood 13ft high and weighed 12.24 tonnes.

Biggest marsupial 

The male red kangaroo of Australia can grow up to 5ft 11in tall and 9ft 4in long (including the tail). Exceptional specimens have weighed 14st 1lb.

Biggest feline carnivore 

The male Siberian tiger averages 10ft 4in in length from the nose to the tip of its extended tail, stands 3ft 6in at the shoulder and weighs about 41st 7lb

They face extinction with only 400 left in the world.

Biggest spider

The Goliath bird-eating spider, which is mostly found in the coastal rainforests of Surinam, Guyana and French Guiana is the giant of the spider world. A male specimen found in Venezuela in 1965 had a leg-span of 11in and was big enough to cover a dinner plate.

Biggest cockroach 

The Macropanesthia Rhinoceros is the biggest cockroach species without wings. It is 3in long, 2in wide and weighs 11/4oz - about the same weight as two sparrows. It is a native of Queensland, Australia.

Biggest chicken

The largest rooster on record is Weirdo who weighed 1st 8lb in January 1973. His prodigious size was the result of cross-breeding and was accompanied by a vicious streak. A resident of New York state, he once ripped through a wire fence to maul another chicken. He also maimed a dog and killed two cats.

Biggest bird

The largest and strongest living bird is the North African ostrich whose males can grow up to 9ft tall and weigh more than 24st.

Biggest jellyfish 

In 1870 an Arctic giant jellyfish was washed up on Massachusetts Bay, USA, from the Atlantic with a bell diameter of 7ft 6in and tentacles 120ft long.

Biggest lizard

Male Komodo Dragons average 7ft 5in in length and weigh about 9st 2lb. Voracious carnivores, they have been reported to kill water buffalo and even humans. The largest accurately-measured specimen was a male presented to a US zoologist by the Sultan of Bima in 1928. In 1937 it was 10ft 2in long and weighed 26st.

Biggest freshwater fish

The rare Pla Buk, which lives mainly in the Mekong River Basin, is said to grow to 9ft 10in in length and weigh 47st 7lb. A South America fish, Arapoima Giges, is reported to grow to 14ft 9in in length, but weighs only 31st.

Biggest fish

The rare plankton-feeding whale shark, which is found in warmer areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, is the largest fish in the world. In 1949, a whale shark caught off the coast of Pakistan measured 41ft 6in long and 23ft around the thickest part of its body. It weighed an estimated 15 to 21 tonnes.

Biggest predator fish

Adult rare great white sharks average 14 to 15ft in length and weigh approximately 82 to 121st. There has been circumstantial evidence to suggest some specimens grow to more than 20ft in length.

Longest fin

Thresher sharks have a huge scythe-shaped caudal fin which is roughly as long as the body itself. The largest and commonest species found in temperate and tropical seas may grow to lengths of 19ft 8in of which almost 9ft 10in consists of the upper tail fin. It is thought that the tail is used to herd and stun schools of fish ready for eating.

Longest feathers

The Phoenix fowl or Yokohama chicken is bred in Japan for ornamental purposes. A rooster with a 34ft 91/2in tail feather was reported in 1972.

Longest bill

The bill of the Australian pelican has been known to grow to more than 18 inches. The longest bill in relation to body size is that of the sword- billed hummingbird of the Andes. At 4in, the beak is longer than the bird's entire body.

Tallest mammal

This record is held by a 19ft tall Masai bull giraffe named George, who arrived at Chester Zoo from Kenya in 1959. When he was nine, his horns almost grazed the roof of the 20ft giraffe house. He died in 1969 aged, scientists estimate, about 15 years old.

Biggest animal eye

The Atlantic giant squid has the largest eye of any animal, living or extinct. A record-breaking specimen found in Newfoundland, Canada in 1878 had eyes estimated to be 20in in diameter.

Longest snake fangs

The highly-venomous Gaboon viper of tropical Africa has fangs which measure 2in long in a 6ft specimen.

Longest spider fangs

The bird-eating spider Theraphosa leblondi has fangs up to 1/2in long.

Heaviest mammal

A 190-tonne female blue whale was caught in the Southern Ocean in 1947. It was 90ft 6in long.

Heaviest lion

A 49st 2lb African lion was shot in South Africa in 1936.

Heaviest marine crustacean 

An American or North American lobster weighing 3st 1lb and measuring 3ft 6in from the end of the tail-fan to the tip of its largest claw was caught off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada in 1977.

Heaviest carnivore

A polar bear weighing 2,000lb which was shot in Alaska in 1960 is the heaviest known land mammal in the world. The bear measured 11ft 3in from nose to tail over its body contours, 4ft 10in around the body and 1ft 5in around the paws.

Heaviest insect

Male Goliath beetles of equatorial Africa can grow up to 41/2in long from the tip of the frontal horns to the end of the abdomen and weigh up to 31/2oz.

Biggest invertebrate 

This record is held by the Atlantic giant squid. The heaviest ever discovered ran around in Thimble Tickle Bay, Newfoundland, Canada on November 2, 1978. It had a body length of 20ft and one tentacle measured more than 35ft.

Biggest parasite

The fish tapeworm, which inhabits the small intestine of fish and humans, is usually 30-40ft long, but it can grow up to a maximum of 60ft. The beef tapeworm can grow up to 50ft, but one specimen measured more than 75ft - three times the length of the human intestine.

Longest mammal

A 110ft 21/2in female blue whale was landed in South Georgia in the South Atlantic in 1909.

Longest snake

The reticulated python of South-east Asia often exceeds 20ft 6in in length. One specimen shot in Indonesia in 1912 was recorded at 32ft 9in long.

Smallest mammal

The Bumblebee or Kitti's Hog-Nosed Bat is confined to 21 limestone caves in North-west Thailand. It has a body the size of a bee with a body length of 11/5in.

Smallest frog

There are a total of 2,660 species of frog ranging in length from 1/3in for Eutherodocylus limbatus to 141/2in for the African Goliath frog.

Smallest spider

The Patu Marplesi from Samoa holds this distinction. A male found in 1965 measured just 17/1000in - about the size of one of the full-stops on this page.

Strongest spider

The Californian Trap Door spider is capable of resisting a force up to 38 times its own weight when an intruder is trying to prise open its entrance.

Fastest flying insect

The highest maintainable airspeed of any insect is 24mph by the deer bat fly, hawk moths, horseflies and some tropical butterflies. The Australian dragonfly can reach 36mph in short bursts.

Fastest land mammal

The cheetah can run at 60mph for short distances over level ground. The pronghorn antelope can sustain 35mph for a distance of four miles and hit 55mph in half-mile bursts. It is the fastest land mammal over long distances.

Fastest fish

The Cosmopolitan Sailfish is considered to be the fastest over small distances. In speed trials carried out in Florida, one Sailfish took out 300ft of line in three seconds. This is equivalent to 65mph.

Fastest parasitic worm

Specimens of the Subcutaneous Eye Worm, which is up to 3in long, have been removed from all parts of patients' bodies. As adults their maximum migration rate through the human body equals 1/2in per minute.

Slowest fish

There are about 30 species of seahorse which are all very slow swimmers. The only parts which can be moved rapidly are the pectoral fins on either side of the back of the head, and the dorsal fin along the back. The fish propels itself forward in an erect posture by waving its dorsal fin. In still water, some can move along at 0.001mph, but in strong currents they have to cling to plants to prevent themselves from being swept away.

Slowest mammal

This honour goes to the three-toed sloth from tropical South America which has an average ground speed of six to eight feet per minute.

Oldest fish

A female European eel called Putte was 88 years old when she died in an aquarium in Sweden in 1948. She was born in 1860 in the Sargasso Sea and was caught in a river as a three-year-old elver.

Longest-living parasite

A life-span of 27 years has been recorded for a medicinal leech.

Longest jump by a flea

The cat flea can make single jumps of up to 131/10in and the common flea is capable of similar feats.

Longest migration

The longest straight-line distance covered by a fish is 5,800 miles by a Bluefin Tuna which was dart-tagged off Baja California, Mexico, in 1958. It was subsequently caught 300 miles south of Tokyo, Japan in 1963.

Longest journey by a freshwater fish

The European eel spends between seven and 15 years in freshwater before setting off for the species' spawning ground in the Sargasso Sea - a journey that takes it overland from landlocked waters to the Atlantic. The journey covers 3,000 to 4,000 miles and takes about six months.

Longest flight

A Common Tern which was banded in June 1996 in Finland was recaptured alive in January 1997 on Rotamah Island, Victoria, Australia - 16,250 miles away. It had averaged 125 miles a day during its epic journey.

Most dangerous love life

The male brown antechinus, a marsupial mouse from eastern Australia has an insatiable sexual appetite.

Every year the entire male population of the species goes on a rampage for two weeks in a bid to mate with as many females as possible. The mice are so busy chasing females and fighting off rivals that they do not have time to eat, and die within days from starvation, ulcers or infection.

Deepest diver

In 1969 a bull sperm whale surfaced after making a 1hr 52min dive south of Durban, South Africa where the water is 10,473ft deep. Inside its stomach were two small sharks, the type of which are only found on the sea floor.

Deepest-living fish

The deepest-living vertebrates are believed to be aphidids of the genus Bassogigos. A specimen was recovered from a depth of 27,230ft in the Puerto Rican Trench in the Atlantic in 1970.

Highest-living fish

The Tibetan loach is found at an altitude of 17,056ft in the Himalayas.

ANIMAL LIFESTYLES

Most valuable fish

A 193st female Russian sturgeon which was caught in the River Tikhaya Sosna in 1924 yielded 381/2st of the best-quality caviar. It would be worth pounds 189,350 on today's market.

Best sense of smell

Sharks can detect one part of mammalian blood in 100 million parts of water and are believed to be able to pick up the scent of other fishes' fear.

Bravest mammal

The badger will defend itself against animals of any size. Its tough skin is impervious to bee stings, porcupine quills and most snakebites. Its skin is so loose that if the creature is held by the scruff of the neck it can turn inside it and still deliver a bite.

Most expert tool user

Chimpanzees have developed tool use and simple tool-making to a higher level than any other mammals - except humans. They can use straw and twigs to extract termites, branches to investigate out-of-reach objects, stones to hammer open hard-shelled nuts, and leaves as cloths to remove dirt and as sponges to obtain water.

Biggest nest

The incubation mounds created by the Mallee Fowl of Australia are up to 15ft high and 35ft across.

Most eggs

The ocean sunfish produces up to 30 million eggs in a single spawning, each about 1/10in in diameter.

Fattiest diet

In spring and early summer the diet of the polar bear consists mainly of recently-weaned ringed seal pups which have a fat content of 50 per cent.

Loudest animal sound

Low-frequency pulses made by fin whales and blue whales to communicate with each other have been measured at up to 188 decibels - the loudest sound by any living source.

Loudest insect

The tymbol organs of the male cicada pulse 7,400 times per minute. The noise carries for half a mile.

Sharpest hearing

Some bats can hear sound frequencies as high as 120-250 kHz - the human limit is only 20 kHz.

Greediest insect

The larva of the polyphemus moth consumes 86,000 times its own birthweight in the first 56 days. This is equivalent to a 7lb human baby taking in 273 tonnes of food.

Biggest methane producer

Domestic cows emit about 105lb of methane a year and annual bovine emissions exceed 62,000 million lbs.

Biggest spider web

The golden silk spider is one of 50 species of Nephila, which are found in tropical areas all over the world. The first lines of its yellow silk webs can be up to 10ft long. In February 1998, Kato (right), from Sagndal in Norway, weighed in at 2st 5lb and had a neck measurement of 14in. The fattest-ever cat was Himmy, a tabby owned by Thomas Vyse of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Himmy weighed 3st 2lb and had a 33in waist when he died at the age of ten years and four months on March 12, 1986. He was so huge he had to be moved about in a wheelbarrow.

The Tarsier is one of the world's smallest primates and lives in the forests of Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines. Tarsiers have a maximum body length of 61/2in and have such huge eyes that they are the equivalent to grapefruit-sized eyes in a human being. They are also the only primates along with the Galagos, or bush babies, who can turn their heads 180 degrees in either direction.

Gui Gui died at 44 in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, Japan in 1988. The male eastern lowland gorilla from the Congo is also the largest of all primates. It has a bipedal standing height of up to 5ft 9in and can weigh as much as 25st.

The fangtooth anoplogaster has prominent sharp fangs which, like the teeth of all fish, are used not for chewing, but primarily for the capture of prey or the collection of plant food. The largest members of the shark subclasses Selachii and Elasmobranchii have the biggest teeth - they can be over a foot long.

The Texan Horned Lizard remains motionless if approached, but if it is picked up it will often attempt to disconcert its attacker by puffing up its body and spraying blood from its eyes. Of the 14 species - which are mainly found in the desert areas of North America and Mexico - only two or three can squirt blood from the corners of their eyes. They do this by increasing the blood pressure inside their heads.

The net-casting spider of the genus Dinopis has huge eyes that shine when staring into a bright light. They are 1/2in in width but don't produce very clear images. They come into their own, however, at night.

Darwin, right, is a 70-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise, who lives at Blackpool Zoo. The species was thought to be extinct until his identification. There is also only one Abingdon Island giant tortoise still alive, aptly named Lonesome George.