Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Giant Creatures
by Stacy Conradt - September 9, 2010 - 8:52 PM

q10

The Internet is abuzz about the picture of the giant goldfish that recently surfaced (haven’t seen it? Check out #1 below). Real or not real, there are plenty of other mammoth versions of animals out there. From huge hares to big bovines, here are 10 larger-than-life creatures.

1. A 30-pound koi carp. A fisherman named Raphael Biagini allegedly caught this beauty while fishing in France a few months ago. The authenticity of the picture is being disputed, but Yahoo! argues that 30 pounds is hardly a record weight for this type of fish – the largest documented was nearly 90 pounds (and also came from France, by the way).

2. A 17-pound, three-foot-tall bunny. Yep, he’s real, and verified by Snopes. This not-so-little guy is named Herman, and he’s a type of hare called the German Giant.

3. Two-foot starfish. National Geographic featured these monsters when they were discovered in Antarctic waters by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research two years ago. They squick me out a little bit, but not as much as the next one…

4. A spider the size of a human hand. I’m going to link to this one rather than post a picture, because I know there are plenty of arachnophobics out there. The link, in case you’re curious but don’t want to click, is of a spider large enough to eat a bird. In fact, it is eating a bird. It’s slightly horrifying.

5. A 770-pound stingray. It was caught by a British fisherman last year, but he was unable to haul it in alone – it took 13 men to get this big girl out of the water. They later discovered she was pregnant.

6. A pig that weighed nearly a ton. In 2004, a pig named Ton Pig (clever, yes?) died because it was so fat. It weighed 1,986 pounds, ate about 108 pounds every day and could no longer move due to its excessive size. When it passed away, his farmer owner donated him to the Liaoning Agricultural Museum. It took 16 men to load the pig onto the back of a truck. Legend has it there was one bigger, though – Big Bill, a pig exhibited at the Chicago World Fair from 1933-1934 allegedly weighed 2,552 pounds.

7. A salamander that would be taller than some humans if it stood on its tail. The giant salamander can reach up to 5’9″. Although the species is older than the T-Rex, it’s now on the endangered species list.

8. A six-and-a-half-foot-tall cow the size of a small elephant. Big Cow Chilli (that’s his full name) weighs more than a ton and stands six feet, six inches tall. Unlike Ton Pig, Big Cow Chilli’s owners say he doesn’t seem to eat an abnormal amount and is quite lean for his size.

9. A 42-foot, 2,500-pound snake. Let’s be thankful this one isn’t around anymore. The fossil of this absolutely mind-blowing snake was found in a coal mine in Colombia. Scientists think the snake crushed its prey to death much like an anaconda would, except this snake would have been able to squeeze the life out of car-sized beasts. Yikes.

10. A scorpion bigger than a human. It’s a good thing this guy is extinct as well, because an 8.2-foot sea scorpion makes Jaws look like a kitten. A fossil of the bug’s 18-inch claw was found in Germany in 2007; scientists estimated the scorpion’s total size based on that claw.

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Comments (15)

  1. Thank you SOOOO much for linking that spider pic. I can’t even look at pictures without feeling creepy crawlies all over. I love the bug bunnies. Amazing.

    posted by margoGo on 9-9-2010 at 9:42 pm

  2. to fish-dorks like myself, starfish is an incorrect term. Sea star is more appropriate, since the animal is not a fish but an echinoderm which means ‘spiny skinned’. Just thought I would throw that out there! ;)

    posted by Jenna on 9-10-2010 at 12:08 am

  3. Maybe a little nit picky, but in #9 Colombia is spelled incorrectly.

    Kind of strange – it’s the second time I’ve seen that mistake in the last few days.

    I can’t even begin to think about a snake that huge. Ugh.

    posted by Nicole on 9-10-2010 at 6:46 am

  4. In actual truth Nicole, in #9 IT IS spelled correctly. The south American nation is actually named after Cristoforo Colombo, who we know from the anglicized name of Christofer Columbus. When translating, we usually put a U instead of an E because it sounds like a U.

    so you could say that the Republic of Colombia is spelled correctly in regards to the italian name of Columbus. Everything else is wrong!

    (sorry, about that. Toponymy and onomatology are hobbies of mine).

    posted by Kirkland on 9-10-2010 at 9:18 am

  5. I really shouldn’t have looked at that spider picture. Yeesh.

    posted by Tinkerschnitzel on 9-10-2010 at 9:57 am

  6. The stingray sounds eerily similar to the one Jeremy Wade & his team caught on River Monsters (British fisherman, giant stingray that was pregnant). But I’m thinking his wasn’t nearly 770 lbs.

    Sounds strikingly similar however!

    posted by Zach on 9-10-2010 at 10:07 am

  7. I for one believe the 30-pound carp pic was shopped.

    posted by Ben on 9-10-2010 at 10:19 am

  8. Yeah, I’m not too sure about that koi carp picture. I realize that they could get to thirty pounds, but the one in the picture looks much larger than thirty. Not to mention how the guy is holding it – he doesn’t look like he’s holding thirty pounds.

    Interesting post though!

    posted by Bert on 9-10-2010 at 10:22 am

  9. I’m not scared of many animals. But the giant squid scares me like nothing else. Have you seen pictures of those things? They’re the stuff of nightmares.

    posted by BlueAloe on 9-10-2010 at 10:44 am

  10. Very cool list! The picture of the spider and the bird was truly horrifying…poor bird :(

    Omg though the giant bunny soo cuuute!! Love its furry feet :D

    posted by Rina on 9-10-2010 at 12:01 pm

  11. I heard that a deal was made to send some of the large rabbits to Korea to help with the starvation problem there.

    So, 6 (or so) bunnies were sent to Korea to breed. But the German man discovered that his rabbits were just eaten by 6 top Koren governmental people (Kim Jong-il & friends?) and vowed to never sell his bunnies for things like that again….

    Can’t recall where I heard this though.

    Anyone?

    posted by Kristyn on 9-10-2010 at 12:20 pm

  12. Zach- I believe it is the same sting ray, judging from the picture. Sure looks like the crew to me!

    posted by Cyndi on 9-10-2010 at 1:29 pm

  13. The picture of the salamander really grossed me out.

    posted by Brit on 9-10-2010 at 2:05 pm

  14. The spider didn’t bother me. But I have a recurring nightmare of a giant Jackrabbit chasing me, so the bunny was a bit frightning.

    posted by Melanie on 9-10-2010 at 2:15 pm

  15. Kirkland – yes, exactly. Sometime today the spelling was corrected – it had been spelled with a U earlier this morning.
    Thanks for the correction Mental_floss.

    posted by Nicole on 9-10-2010 at 11:28 pm

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