Some record holders in the animal kingdom are so well known that even children can name them.
But there are many more champions ...
Munich - All over the world there are various record holders in the animal kingdom.
Whether speed, size or frequency: records go in both directions.
Because even the slowest animal has finally earned its place on the record holder list.
In this photo story we take a closer look at the current leaders from the animal world:
The arctic tern
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© Joerg Asmus / IMAGO / BIA
The arctic tern is a real long-haul flyer.
On her train she flies from the Arctic to Antarctica and back.
The fact that some birds cover up to 96,000 kilometers a year - a distance as long as twice around the earth - makes them the top record holders.
In Germany, the bird can be seen in the summer in the North and Baltic Seas, where it breeds in large colonies.
The Weddell seal
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© IMAGO / imagebroker
Weddell seals are among the seals as the record holder for diving.
You can stay underwater for up to 70 minutes and dive to a depth of 700 meters.
These dives help you both with the hunt and with finding new breathing holes.
Weddell seals live in Antarctica.
They were named after the British captain James Weddell.
The wandering albatross
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© AGAMI / M.
Guyt / IMAGO / Blickwinkel
The king of the skies: The wandering albatross has a wingspan of more than 3.5 meters, which is greater than that of any other living bird species.
In exceptional cases, its wings can even measure up to 4.5 meters.
Just as fascinating: the bird can stay in the air for weeks.
It catches its food on the surface of the water during flight and also eats it while flying.
He doesn't even go to the floor to sleep.
On the other hand, fans of the classic cartoon "Bernhard and Bianca - the Mouse Police" have always been clear about the landing skills of the big birds ...
Krill
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© imageBROKER / SeaTops / IMAGO
The most common animal on our planet is the krill.
According to estimates by researchers, the total population of shrimp-like crabs weighs up to 500 million tons.
And that's a good thing: Because the krill forms the basis of the food chain.
Numerous seal, fish and bird species as well as individual whales depend, among other things, on its population.
The African ostrich
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© Reinhard Dirscherl / IMAGO / agefotostock
The African ostrich is the largest bird still alive.
With a top speed of up to 70 km / h, it is also one of the fastest ratites.
The ostrich can hold a speed of 50 km / h for a good half an hour.
One quality that helps him do this is his toes.
The African ostrich is the only bird species to have only two of them.
This allows him to run faster, which often enables him to successfully escape from his enemies, such as the lions.
With its clawed, strong toes, the ostrich can also kick it in a targeted manner.
The power of kicks can kill a lion or a human.
The Cheetah
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© Kim Ludbrook / picture alliance / dpa
The fastest land animal is world-famous: the cheetah.
On the hunt, it can reach a speed of around 100 km / h.
However, cheetahs are not long-distance runners.
They can only maintain high speeds over a short distance.
If they don't catch their prey fast enough while hunting, the sprinters will soon have to give up.
The rhinoceros beetle
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© imageBROKER / Giesbert Kühnle / IMAGO
It is the strongest beetle in the world: the rhinoceros beetle can carry loads that are 850 times as heavy as it is. It is easy to recognize by the characteristic horn on the top of its head.
The beetle, which may seem familiar to many from the compost heap at home, is one of the “specially protected” animal species in Germany.
The harpy
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© Jon G. Fuller / IMAGO / VWPics
The South American harpy is considered to be the strongest bird in the world.
It preyed on mammals such as sloths and monkeys.
As a rule, the bird's prey weighs up to nine kilograms.
However, it has also been observed how a harpy was flying towards a pike deer.
The strong toes help the animal to hunt.
The harpy then flies its prey into the nest ettapen-wise.
The swordfish - hardly anyone is faster than him in the water
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© Marevision / IMAGO / agefotostock
Fast and agile: the swordfish shoots through the water at 70 to 100 km / h, making it one of the fastest fish in the world.
It prefers to feed on various schooling fish such as herrings and mackerel.
Adult swordfish can grow to be up to three meters long.
Rhampholeon spinosus
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© IMAGO / McPHOTO / Brehm
This little chameleon is also particularly fast.
The only thumb-sized animal called Rhampholeon spinosus can accelerate its tongue from zero to 97 km / h in a hundredth of a second.
A record holder.
This means that the chemeleon only needs 20 milliseconds to catch a cricket.
The sloth
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© Jon G. Fuller / IMAGO / VWPics
What a surprise, the sloth can claim the title of the slowest mammal.
In trees it covers a maximum distance of 300 meters in one hour.
It's even less on the ground: 120 meters per hour.
But the sloth does not leave its place in the treetops particularly often.
After all, his food grows right under his nose.
Leaves and buds are on the menu.
Due to the low-energy diet, sloths sleep and doze for up to 15 hours a day.
The Etruscan shrew
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© IMAGO / Blickwinkel
The Etruscan shrew belongs to the species of shrew and, together with the pig-nosed bat, is the smallest mammal in the world.
Their body size measures just three centimeters without a tail.
Its weight is just as minimal: the mouse, which is common in the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia, weighs just a few grams.
The giant sponge
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© IMAGO / imagebroker
The giant sponge is not just an animal organism.
It is probably also the oldest living being in the world.
According to marine biologists, this sponge, which lives on the ocean floor in Antarctica, took over 10,000 years to grow.
However: life spans that long are difficult to prove.
The giant salamander
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© IMAGO / Olaf Wagner
It is a living fossil: the giant salamander has lived on earth for millions of years and has hardly changed since then.
However, the amphibian holds its record for its size.
With a length of over 1.8 meters and a weight of up to 60 kilograms, the salamander is the largest and heaviest amphibian alive today.
It is common in East Asia and North America.
The Japanese spider crab
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© IMAGO / imagebroker / Andrey Nekrasov
Big and heavy: this is also the Japanese spider crab.
It is the largest arthropod in the world.
Some specimens reach a leg span of four meters.
At the same time, the spider crab is also the heaviest of its tribe.
The spider can weigh up to 20 kilograms.
The whale shark
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© imageBROKER / Norbert Probst / IMAGO
The whale shark is both the largest shark and the largest fish in contemporary waters.
Investigations of over 300 specimens have shown that the shark reaches a size between 3.0 and 12.7 meters.
It lives in the tropical to subtropical seas and occurs both near the coast and offshore.
Similar to basking sharks and basking mouth sharks, the whale shark feeds on plankton and krill.
A cockroach
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© Oliver Willikonsky / IMAGO
The cockroach, also known as the cockroach, reaches a high speed for its size and is therefore the fastest crawling insect in the world.
It can reach a speed of up to 5.4 km / h - very considerable with a size of twelve to 30 millimeters.
The dragonfly
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© Horst Ossinger / picture alliance / dpa
The long-distance record among insects is probably held by the Indian dragonfly.
Their flight performance puts other insects in the shade.
In one year it covers up to 18,000 kilometers.
Their path leads them from South India via the Maldives and Seychelles to East Africa - and back.
Some species even reach Uganda.
The peregrine falcon
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© Holger Hollemann / picture alliance / dpa
The cheetah is the fastest land animal, but in the race for the title of fastest animal in the world, one bird puts it in the shade: the peregrine falcon.
It is one of the largest representatives of the falcon-like species and reaches a top speed of up to 320 km / h in a dive.
His prey includes pigeons and corvids, which he catches directly from the air.
Peregrine falcons are distributed all over the world and can now be found again in almost all Central European countries.
The golden poison dart frog
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© Photo booth / Grosshanten / IMAGO
The golden poison dart frog is not only the most poisonous amphibian in the world, it is also considered to be the most poisonous animal living on land.
Just touching the frog can be fatal to a human.
The frog, also known as the terrible poison dart frog, now only lives in a small area in South American Colombia.
The fugu
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© IMAGO / Scherf
The most poisonous animal among the fish is the fugu.
The pufferfish nerve poison tetrodotoxin is the most potent non-proteinaceous poison known.
A dose of ten micrograms per kilogram of body weight is enough to kill a person.
For an adult human, less than a milligram is enough as a lethal amount.
The puffer fish got its name because of its round, fish-untypical shape.
In the event of danger, the poisonous animal can also inflate itself to appear larger.
The gorilla
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© Uwe Anspach / picture alliance / dpa
The gorilla is the largest great ape in the world.
But he's not only big, he's also strong.
With around 300 kilograms, which the primate can weigh when fully grown, he can lift an impressive 900 kilograms.
By comparison, the human deadlift record is 501 kilograms.
Eddie Hall, who set the previous record at 500 kilos in 2017, weighed around 200 kilos himself at the time.
A gorilla can lift significantly more than its body weight.
Illacme plenipes
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© artush / IMAGO / Panthermedia
A thousand feet, a millipede doesn't have that much after all, but some species come pretty close.
At 750 feet, the Illacme plenipes is the record holder among the 13,000 species of millipedes.
The small animals especially love the undergrowth and moist soil in the tropics.
Illacme plenipes itself is native to California.
the blue whale
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© Mark Carwardine / Imago
The blue whale is the heaviest known animal in the history of the earth.
The whale can reach a weight of 200 tons and a body length of up to 33 meters.
This makes it the longest animal that has ever lived.
Few dinosaurs could possibly have been any longer.
Given its size, the giant, which is at home in all of the world's oceans, is a lonely leader.
His heart alone weighs up to a ton.
And the youngsters are already showing that they are among the greatest.
Calves are born seven meters long and weigh 2.5 tons.
The black mamba
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© imageBROKER / Ivan Kuzmin / IMAGO
The black mamba is the fastest snake in the world.
It can reach speeds of up to 24 km / h over short distances.
In doing so, however, it never completely touches the ground.
As you know from pictures, she always stretches the front part of her body into the air.
The black mamba lives in South and East Africa and is mainly found south of the Sahara.
With a length of up to 4.5 meters, it also holds another record: the longest venomous snake in Africa.
The bat's noisy prey
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© imageBROKER / Dieter Mahlke / IMAGO
No matter how high a bat whistles, the large wax moth can still hear it: Bats hunt their prey with ultrasound, but the food, the moths, can still hear the calling frequencies.
They even hear better.
A test showed: the large wax moth hears sounds up to a frequency of 300 kilohertz.
Even a bat can only perceive tones of around 200 kilohertz.
The Saltwater Crocodile - A size record holder
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© artush / IMAGO / Panthermedia
The largest of its kind: The saltwater crocodile also has this title.
It is the largest crocodile living today.
The reptile lives in the oceans, rivers and swamps from East India to northern Australia.
Male specimens reach a length of 4.6 to 5.2 meters.
The record is said to have been measured in the 1950s on a crocodile with a height of 8.5 meters.
The meadow foam cicada
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© Blickwinkel / H.
Bellmann / F.
Hecker / IMAGO
It's small, but a real record holder: the meadow foam cicada is the world's best in high jump.
She can catapult herself from a standing position to a height of 70 centimeters.
In other words, an average tall adult would have to jump around 200 meters to keep up with this performance.
In relation to its own body length, no living being can jump as high as the meadow foam cicada.
The cicada mainly uses this type of locomotion when fleeing.
The okapi
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© IMAGO / Blickwinkel
The okapi holds a record in length: no other living being has such a long tongue.
The blue muscle body of mammals can be up to 25 centimeters long.
The relatives of the giraffe use the tongue not only to eat.
Okapis also use it to clean themselves and can even use their tongues to clean their eyes.
The skunk
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© STAR-MEDIA / Michael Schöne / IMAGO
The skunk, also known colloquially as the skunk, can even be seen from four kilometers away.
Because if it feels threatened, it sprays a so-called defense secretion, which it can spray up to six meters.
The liquid not only smells bad, it can even cause short-term blindness - even in humans.
Anyone who swallows the secretion has to vomit and can pass out.
The common swift
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© imageBROKER / Dieter Mahlke / IMAGO
A life in the air: the swift is a real endurance flyer.
One study showed that the migratory birds spend up to ten months non-stop in the air.
One bird even reached 314 days.
That's a record.
The birds only have contact with the ground during the breeding phases.
The otter - No one else is so hairy
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© IMAGO / Blickwinkel
Who is the animal with the most hair?
I guess that's the otter.
Unlike marine mammals such as whales or seals, otters do not have a layer of fat to protect them from the cold.
Your body is therefore isolated by a layer of hair.
In total, the otter grows 60,000 to 80,000 hairs per square centimeter.
A record among native wildlife.
And for comparison: In humans, the density is 80 to 210 hairs per square centimeter.
The tree kangaroo
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© imageBROKER / Jürgen & Christine Sohns / IMAGO
Tree kangaroos feel at home in the high tops of the rainforests.
They can only hop a little on the ground, but they are masters in the treetops.
The skilled climbers jump over nine meters from one tree to the next.
According to reports, they can jump to the ground from 18 meters without injuring themselves.
The leatherback turtle - a deep diver
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© IMAGO / mm images / Schütz
Diving record: leatherback turtles are the best when it comes to diving into the depths of the oceans.
The reptiles dive down to a depth of 1,200 meters.
They use a special technique that drastically reduces their lung volume.
The sea creatures slide effortlessly into the depths.
The elephant turtle
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© IMAGO / imagebroker
Elephant tortoises or giant Galapagos tortoises can get very old.
Probably the oldest living turtle in the world is called Esmeralda.
She lives on Bird Island in the Seychelles and is said to have come to the island in 1808 when the ship Hirondelle ran aground.
This would mean that the 1.80 meter long and 300 kg heavy giant tortoise would have been born around 1780 and would be over 200 years old.
Their exact age cannot be reliably determined.
However, it is in the Guiness Book of Records as the oldest turtle.
The sparrow eggs
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© Holger Hollemann / picture alliance / dpa
No bird flies higher than the sparrow's eggs.
The vulture climbs lofty heights of more than 11,200 meters.
For this reason, there was also a collision with a commercial aircraft in the airspace of Ivory Coast in November 1973.
The housefly
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© IMAGO / Blickwinkel
The housefly does not move its wings high, but rather quickly.
At 2.9 meters per second, it is the insect with the most flaps of its wings.
A housefly flaps its wings 180 to 330 times per second.
Maybe it does so because you have so little time left on our earth: Depending on the exogenous conditions, house flies only live for six to seventy days.
The agile frog
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© W. Willner / IMAGO / blickwinkel
The agile frog is the record holder in the longest jump from a standing position. He manages a total of two meters, which is 33 times his body size.
In comparison, the world record holder Ray Ewry jumped “only” 3.21 meters in the standing long jump when this was still an Olympic sport.
In Germany, the agile frog is one of the rarer frog species.
The sand rattle otter
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© imageBROKER / Clément Carbillet / IMAGO
The most poisonous reptile lives in large parts of Asia: the sand rattle otter.
The relatively small snake with a size of 60 to 80 centimeters is considered to be the most dangerous snake for humans.
Various factors play a role here.
Their aggressive, aggressive temperament, their strong poison, their preferred habitation near human dwellings and the frequent bite accidents.
It is estimated that there are not many other snakes responsible for a comparable number of deaths.
The racing lizard
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© IMAGO / Blickwinkel
The fastest reptile, on the other hand, is the racing lizard.
As its name suggests, it can reach top speeds.
The reptile, which prefers to stay in savannas, on river banks and in forest clearings, covers 29 kilometers per hour.
The racing lizard is common all over South and Central America.
The elephant - the largest land animal in the world
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© Morales / IMAGO / agefotostock
Elephants are the largest and heaviest living land animals.
The largest species today is the African elephant.
It is up to 3.7 meters high and then weighs around 6.6 tons.
The largest specimen ever measured was 4 meters high and weighed about 10 tons.
The prong bracket
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© AGAMI / M.
Verdoes / IMAGO / Blickwinkel
When the cheetah accelerates to full speed, it soon has to brake again: it lacks stamina.
Other sprinters in the country feel the same way.
The only land animal that can keep up its speed over long distances is the pronghorn.
It reaches speeds of up to 90 km / h and can maintain this for up to five kilometers.
The pronghorn is native to the North American prairie.
The bee elf
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© kamchatka / IMAGO / agefotostock
Among the hummingbirds, one species holds the record for being small.
The bee elves, which belong to the hummingbird family, measure just six centimeters.
But its larger relatives are also comparatively small.
The largest hummingbird species is called the giant hummingbird, although the name here does not directly indicate the size.
The birds measure about 22 centimeters.
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