To learn more, see the original posts:

• 10 Animals Heart Facts for Valentine’s Day
• Valentine’s Day: Some Animals Really Have Heart

Update: The image above has been updated with the correct silhouettes for the blue whale and cheetah.

Extra-Large Wildlife

Blue whales reach lengths of 110 feet (with females being bigger than males), making them the largest animals to ever live! They are also one of the loudest animals on Earth, songs can reach nearly 200 dB (louder than a jet engine!) and travel for hundreds of miles across the ocean.

For another animal with impressive length, here is a video of a 49 foot long python, being held in captivity in Indonesia. Over the centuries there have been many tales of giant snakes. This 983 pounder tells us the tales were mostly true. In recent years, pythons have become an extra-large threat to the Florida Everglades ecosystem, where pet owners have released the non-native species into the wild.

Similar tales of exotic wild creatures at sea may have been spawned by such as this 2,000 pound, nine foot long loggerhead turtle that, sadly, only came to view because it snagged in buoy cable. NWF and colleague organizations took many needed steps during the 2010 BP Gulf oil disaster to protect loggerheads and other turtle species.

We all know that giraffes are our tallest land animal and that some have reached heights in excess of 20 feet, but the world’s tallest subspecies of giraffe, the Rothschild, is now in danger of extinction.

Scientists exploring Madagascar reported the discovery of what is thought to be the world's smallest chameleon, Brookesia micra, a leaf chameleon. Photo by Glaw, F., et al., PLoS ONE

Extra-Small Wildlife

By contrast, the smallest of reptile was recently discovered in Madagascar: Brookesia micra. It is a tiny leaf chameleon that measures an inch when fully grown.  Recent efforts to inventory wild species in tropical forests are finding hundreds of previously undocumented species, including this little guy who lives in leaf litter and only comes out at night.

Speedy Birds

There are many record-breaking speedsters in the animal kingdom. The Peregrine falcon gets the nod for being able to dive at speeds close to 150 mph, but Siberia’s spine-tailed swift wins the overall prize for flying across the sky at 106 mph.

And while cheetahs are the fastest land animal, able to run at 70 mph, the ostrich is the fastest land bird, having been clocked at about 45 mph.

My favorite speedster may be the Gentoo penguin which can swim at about 25 mph through Antarctic seas. These penguins need their speed and smart maneuvering to keep from becoming food the large predators such as orcas. This two minute video, called Happy Gentoo, shows how this all works for a worn out but clever penguin being chased by a pod of orcas. It has a surprise ending you may like. By breaking a record, the little guy avoids becoming a statistic.

Big Leapers

The highest land-based leaper seems to be the cougar, which can jump straight up over 20 feet. The highest ocean leaper seems be a toss-up between orcas and sharks which can get themselves some 20 feet above the waves.

Southern cricket frogs are one of the best jumpers in the amphibian world, reaching heights of over 60 times their body length (that’s like a person jumping up a 38 story building!).

Eastern Hercules Beetle

Longest Commutes

The arctic tern seems to win in the “longest commute” category with its annual 21,000 mile round trip from pole to pole and the North American caribou does a 5,000 mile round trip on land.

Hercules! Hercules!

Last but not least, rhinoceros beetles–sometimes called Hercules beetles because they possess strength of a herculean proportions–can lift objects 850 times their weight. That would be equivalent to a human lifting 9 fully grown male elephants!

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Fastest

Let’s start with the animal that runs faster than any other.  Many people already know that the cheetah, which lives in Africa and Asia, can run like the wind.  These cats can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (mph) in just three seconds.  Their top speed is about 75 mph which makes them more than twice as fast as a lion (35 mph).  A cheetah’s body is completely designed for speed as you can easily see from this video.   But, in an odd twist of nature, cheetahs, unlike most cats, are terrible climbers.

The bird that flies the fastest is the spine-tailed swift of Siberia at over 100 mph.  But the bird that runs fastest is the ostrich which can hit 45 mph as you can tell from this video.   Ostriches are the largest of all birds and are totally flightless.  They often weigh over 300 pounds and must rely on their legs for safety and getting around.   When threatened, those legs can deliver a powerful, even deadly, kick to a predator.

Leggiest

Giraffes win the prize for being the “leggiest” of all creatures. Their legs can grow to well over six feet long.   They need good legs because adult males can grow to be close to 20 feet tall and weigh over 4,000 pounds.  The giraffe is a cousin of deer and cattle but looks quite different.  It closest relative is the okapi.

The African elephant has the largest legs (measured in bulk) of all land creatures.  They have to because they can grow to 15,000 pounds. The animal with the most legs goes is the millipede (750 legs) and the creature with the smallest legs, as far as anyone can figure, is the fairyfly.

Biggest Bones

If one were to ask what animal has the largest leg bones or what is the largest animal with leg bones the answer would be the same and it might, for many people, be a surprise.  It is the blue whale! Whales once lived on land but they liked swimming so much they returned to the sea.  Their front legs evolved into flippers but their back legs “un-evolved” and grew smaller and retreated into their bodies to make them more streamlined.  But, for a 100 foot long blue whale, even these residual hind leg bones are huge.

Slowest Walker

The tortoise is considered by most experts to be the slowest walking animal.  A good-to-go giant tortoise will hit a cruising speed of about 1/6 mph.  It is probably a good thing that they often live to be more than 100 years old.

Those same experts would tell you that the slowest moving mammal is probably the three-toed sloth which has difficulty walking  but moves just as slowly as a tortoise only through the branches of a tree.  If you are looking for the slowest creature using a pseudopod (false foot) it is probably the garden snail which chugs along at about 1/30 mph putting the “go” in escargot.

Largest Crawler

One might say the giant tortoise moves at a crawl, but it is pretty likely that the coconut crab is the largest of the slow crawling arthropods.   Coconut crabs, really oversized hermit crabs, can grow to nine pounds and measure three feet across.  They live on indo-pacific islands and do most of their crawling at night.

The hands-down largest crawler in the world, however, is the saltwater crocodile of Australia which can grow to 20 feet and over 2,500 pounds.   These crocs can also hit some amazing speeds from the “crawl” position.  The largest insect crawler is the goliath beetle which weighs about ¼ of a pound.

The Largest Crawl

Each year, the red crabs of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, leave their forest homes and engage in a massive migration to the Island’s shoreline in order to mate and propagate.  This video can give you a sense of what it is like when 120 million crabs march to the sea all at once.

The Loneliest Walker

Most wildlife scientists would vote for the wolverine as the greatest and widest-ranging walking soloist of all time.  Wolverines walk hundreds of miles and are seldom, if ever, seen.   Those same scientists might offer an explanation that wolverines are just too bad-tempered to spend time with others.  That is probably a little harsh but this video shows how a wolverine chases down a spry hare.

Longest Commute

Among land animals, the caribou is the long-distance champion.  Caribou herds in North America can travel over 3,000 miles round trip each year, without the benefit of “frequent walker” miles.

Weirdest Walkers

There are a number of fish that like to walk on land or in the water.  The mud skipper is probably the best adapted fish for this dual role.  It can stay out of the water for days and moves easily on its foot-like flippers.

The walking catfish by contrast, can leave the water but it is wriggling more than walking as you can see from this video.

One of the most charming of the walking fish is the Mexican walking fish as you can see from the photo on the right or the newly discovered pink hand fish.  And, there is this video of a newly discovered bottom-walking fish that took the experts by surprise.

Humans who have trouble getting around will often use a cane or walking stick, but in the animal world there is an insect known as a walking stick that this video looks at up close and personally.

Coolest Looking Walkers

At the National Wildlife Federation, we are committed to addressing the threat of global climate change and to making all the world’s walking animals a little safer and little better off.  So let’s wrap up with a video of crew of emperor penguins walking off into the distance – happily ever after.

For a great poster on wildlife that walk or to learn more, visit:  National Wildlife Week