Animals play a huge role in our world. Before we even existed as humans, dinosaurs ruled the earth for millions of years! The span of time they inhabited the earth is difficult to wrap one’s head around.
Even today, there is an estimated 8.7 million different species of animals that exist. From the microscopic to the bigger than life, animals are everywhere.
10 animals that weigh around 900 pounds. Let’s take a look at 10 different animals that come in at a bodyweight around 900 pounds. They are cows, ligers (tiger/lion hybrid), wood bison, elephant seals, giraffes, bull shark, grizzly bear, polar bear, and cape buffalo.
There are tons of animals with huge masses, weighing significantly more than even these animals. But for a creature that ranks in around 900, that is still a significant amount of weight to be hauling around from day to day. But their biological makeup certainly accounts for their large stature.
1. Cows
Cows are everywhere and fully grown they weigh around 900 lbs. We see them on many farms, grazing away as a typically docile animal that means no harm to others. Cows even have best friends!
The proper term for them is cattle, but cows is the terminology used by most, and they are considered the largest of the domesticated ungulates.
There have been many purposes that have been cultivated over the years for cows. Whether it’s for the beef, milk, leather or otherwise, millions of cows around the world continue to provide us with useful purposes and an easy to manage demeanor. They are even used as riding animals and draft animals to pull carts, plows, or other pull-behind tools.
Cattle dung has also played its own role in the world of agriculture, being used for fertilization purposes and even fuel.
2. Ligers (Lion/Tiger Hybrid)
What an amazing animal the liger is. The successful crossbreeding of two, large predatory felines to create the ultimate hybrid cat. This animal came into existence through the breeding of a male lion and a female tiger; thus, the liger was born. When the breeding pair is switched to a male tiger and a female lion, you end up with a Tigon, which is a different species. They have similar qualities, but very distinct differences that separate the two. One important difference being that ligers will outgrow their parent species.
Ligers are actually believed to be the largest cat in the known world. They rival male lions and male tigers in overall length, ranking in at 9.8 to 11.8 feet in length. A famous liger named Hercules weighed in right at 900 pounds at only three years of age. Here’s a video of the big guy:
3. Wood Bison
The wood bison goes by a few different names aside from its proper identification. This large land mammal also goes by the names mountain bison, wood buffalo, or mountain buffalo. The wood bison is native to areas such as the Yukon, northeast Northern Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, the western Northwest Territories, and the Boreal Forest region of Alaska.
Buffalo is a term that is considered a misnomer when describing the wood bison. In other words, buffalo doesn’t quite accurately describe the wood bison. The wood bison is larger and heavier than buffalo species, which is one of the more obvious factors that separate the two.
4. Elephant Seals
Let’s head to the water for this next big animal that weigh around 900 pounds. Near the end of the 19th Century, both the northern elephant seal and southern elephant seal were both nearly hunted to extinction.
Elephant seals have their flippers full fending off the Great White Shark, so thankfully, preservation of the species took place to keep them from being hunted until there were none left.
These are a large, earless seal that belongs to the genus “Mirounga.” As their name suggests, they’re big for a seal. And they also engage in a behavior known as “molting.” Molting is when the elephant seal will head to the land to shed their outer layer of skin and hair. The entire process takes about a month to complete, and a seal will not eat anything during this time.
5. Giraffes
Next, we have one of the friendliest, most docile creatures known to man. The giraffe is very adaptable to its surroundings, is typically very friendly and is beautiful to look at. Female giraffes get us right around the weight that we are shooting for.
The giraffe is an African artiodactyl mammal, which places it in the category of hooved ungulates. It is the tallest land animal that exists today, and it is also the largest ruminant, which means it has a special, additional stomach to ferment plant material that has been eaten before being sent to its second stomach for digestion.
Although the females can breach our target weight of 900 pounds, the males are typically larger in size with the largest recorded male weight being 4,250 pounds
6. Bull Shark
We head back to the water for this next animal.” and unlike the elephant seal, the bull shark resides strictly beneath the surface as a fish that uses its gills to breathe underwater.
These sharks are also very unique in that they can live in both saltwater and freshwater. They have actually been known to swim up the Mississippi River and end up as far north as Alton, Illinois! That’s 700 miles from the ocean. Talk about a determined animal.
In June of 2012, in the Florida Keys, a female specimen was caught that measured around 8-feet in length and weighed between 800-850 pounds, so at least close to 900 lbs. This is a shark that has been discovered as existing all around the world and its freshwater tolerating abilities have led it to be found in rivers and streams as long as they’re deep enough.
7. Grizzly Bear
Our list wouldn’t be complete without a ferocious land animal that holds a prominent place throughout the world with multiple subspecies of the genus.
The grizzly bear is also known as the North American Brown Bear and was originally from Eurasia, but ventured over to North America roughly 50,000 years ago.
While females only get up to about 400 pounds on average, inland-dwelling males have a greater propensity to be larger in size with an average maximum weight of 790 pounds. Although this doesn’t quite broach our target weight, coastal-dwelling grizzlies actually have a max weight of 890 pounds, which is right at our 900-pound target.
8. Polar Bear
We can even up the ante on ferocious land animals. Polar bears, by nature, are more aggressive than even the grizzly bear! There are just fewer human interactions that happen with polar bears due to the location of their habitats.
This animal lives mainly within the Arctic Circle, so concerns over climate change have come to the surface as the polar bear’s habitat is seen as being at risk.
There were large-scale hunting efforts that caused the animal to nearly breach endangerment, but preservation accomplishments took place to keep polar bears a thriving animal.
While the female polar bear is only about half the size of a full-grown male weighing an average of 331-551 pounds while their male counterparts range between 772-1,543 pounds. Around the Beaufort Sea, our male polar bears are right on the mark averaging 992 pounds.
9. Cape Buffalo
The Cape buffalo is also known as the African Buffalo and is considered a Sub-Saharan Bovine. These land mammals have a unique attribute called a “boss,” which is their defining characteristic.
The horns are fused at the base, which is unique to their species, and it forms a continuous shield across the top of its head. And although other bovines have been domesticated, the unpredictable temperament of the cape buffalo makes it impossible to domesticate.
There are two types of cape buffalo; savannah-type and forest-type. Our forest-type cape buffalo will be where we get our target weight, with their average weight being between 600-1000 pounds. The savannah-type cape buffalo is significantly bigger, weighing in at around double the size of the forest dwellers at 1,100-2,200 pounds.
900 pounds is large for an animal. It’s not quite the largest weight of an existing animal, but it’s still a significant amount of mass to behold. Seeing a 900-pound animal up close would be fascinating for just about anyone. But always be safe, even with the more docile species. A lot of animals react in certain ways (like aggression) from a place of fear, so always be careful around the larger species.
