1. The American Pygmy Shrew (Sorex hoyi)
With a pulse clocking in at more than a 1000 per minute, the smallest mammal in North Americareally needs lots of food to keep its phenomenal metabolism going. Every day it eats three times its own weight. To do so it needs to constantly eat and never sleeps for more than a few minutes. An hour without food would mean certain death. But this high-octane life style takes its toll – the 5 cm long animals typically live barely a year.
(Photo Credit: CC BY 2.0 Flickr/polandeze)
2. The Blue Whale(Balaenoptera musculus)
As the largest animal ever to have lived you’d expect the blue whale to be a good eater. 30 meters long and weighing some 170 tons, it eats up to 3,6 tons of krill (a type of plankton) a day. That’s equivalent to a daily intake of 1.5 million Calories – or about 6000 Snickers bars.
(Photo Credit: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Flickr/flickkerphotos)
3. The Humming Bird(Trochilidae)
With its heart beating up to 20 times a second during hovering flight, humming birds need lots of food to maintain their phenomenal flight engines powering their wings which can flap up to 80 times a second. They eat up to twice their weight in nectar every day making them not only the hungriest birds but the hungriest animals outside the insect realm.
(Photo Credit: CC BY-NC-SA Flickr/Jason Paluck)
4. The Giant Weta (Anostostomatidae)
With a span of up to 18cm and a weight of 70 grams, this creepy crawly is considered the largest insect in the world. Here’s a specimen that isofficially the largest on record – discovered by a former park ranger on new Zealand’s Little Barrier island. And it is very hungry indeed. The news item shows it attempting to gobble up a carrot. The park ranger added: “She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species and we didn’t want to risk indigestion.”
(Photo Credit: CC BY-ND 2.0 Flickr/mikex)
5. The Star-Nosed Mole (Condylura cristata)
If you are hungry, you want to eat. Quickly. By that measure the star-nosed mole must be one of the hungriest animals around – because it eats faster than any other mammal. It , both, finds and swallows its food typically in less than a quarter of a second. Which is about as fast as you blink.
(Photo Credit: CC BY-NC 2.0 Flickr/hillbraith)
FAQs
This tiny terror is a predator with a bottomless need for food.
What is the hungriest animals? ›
This tiny terror is a predator with a bottomless need for food.
What animal has to eat constantly to survive? ›
Diet and prey
Masked shrews are opportunistic generalists. They eat insects, worms, snails, small rodents, salamanders, and seeds. Due to its high metabolism, the masked shrew can eat three times its weight a day. The shrew has to eat almost constantly, because they can only survive a few hours without food.
What animal eats the most pounds of food a day? ›
Then there are animals that eat massive quantities on a regular basis. The largest animal on earth, the blue whale, puts away four tons of krill a day. That's sounds like a lot, but this animal has a 200-ton body to feed, so that's not a high percentage of its body weight.
Which animal is the messiest eater? ›
The world's largest land animals are not dainty eaters.
What animal eats the fastest? ›
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have found that the star-nosed mole can eat 10 mouthful-size chunks of earthworm, one at a time, in 2.3 seconds, or 0.23 second a chunk. That is over 26 times as fast as Ms. Thomas in her record-shattering performance. In fact, it is the fastest eating ever measured in any mammal.
What animal has 800 stomachs? ›
Soon, we learned of the many myths surrounding the number of stomachs in the average Etruscan Shrew. Some believe the species evolved 800 stomachs, though it's difficult to imagine.
What animal will eat almost anything? ›
Omnivores are a diverse group of animals. Examples of omnivores include bears, birds, dogs, raccoons, foxes, certain insects, and even humans. Animals that hunt other animals are known as predators, while those that are hunted are known as prey. Since omnivores hunt and are hunted, they can be both predators and prey.
Which animal can survive for 2 to 3 years without food? ›
You will be surprised to know that crocodiles, as one of the oldest reptiles of the planet can go for a few months without food, and in extreme cases, they can go up to three years without food. They save energy by moving slow and at times by being motionless too.
Which animal can sleep for 3 years? ›
Answer. Answer: Snails can sleep for three years. Explanation: They need moisture to survive and if the weather is not likewise they sleep upto 3 years. Snails' ancestors are one of the earliest known types of animals in the world.
However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the coney. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a split hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you. The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud.
Which animal can live without oxygen? ›
In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers have now identified the first animal that doesn't use oxygen to breathe: Henneguya salminicola, an 8-millimeter white parasite that infects the flesh of Chinook salmon.
What animal eat their own body weight every day? ›
Hummingbirds can consume 100 percent of their body's weight in sugar water or nectar every day, in addition to as many as 2,000 tiny insects!
What animals eat most humans? ›
Although humans can be attacked by many kinds of non-human animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet and actively hunt and kill humans. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved lions, tigers, leopards, polar bears, and large crocodilians.
What is the hungriest mammal in the world? ›
The Etruscan shrew has a body length of about 4 cm (1.6 in) excluding the tail. It is characterized by very rapid movements and a fast metabolism, eating about 1.5–2 times its own body weight per day.
Which animal eats itself when hungry? ›
Self-cannibalism behaviour has been documented in North American rat snakes: one captive snake attempted to consume itself twice, dying in the second attempt. Another wild rat snake was found having swallowed about two-thirds of its body.
Which animal eats himself when he is hungry? ›
Originally Answered: Is there any animal who eats itself when it feels too hungry? Snakes eat themselves due to stress, temperature regulation issues, hypermetabolism, hunger, shedding, constrictive habitat, illness, or confusion. This behavior is most likely to happen in captivity.
What animals do we eat the most? ›
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world (36%) followed by poultry (33%), beef (24%), and goats/sheep (5%).
