Top Ten Biggest Living Creatures on the Planet

The items in this list have been selected by the author of the list for you to vote and comment on.
The Top Ten
1 Whale Shark The whale shark is the world's largest living shark as well as the largest living fish. Whale sharks grow up to 45 ft. (13.7 m) long, and can weigh as much as 13 tons (11.6 tonnes). Their mouths alone are a whopping 6 ft. (1.8 m) across-big enough to gulp down three percent of their body weight in food in one sitting. As well as eating planktonic (microscopic) prey, whale sharks will also take nektonic (larger free-swimming) species, including fish and squid, when they get the chance. However, unlike their smaller cousins, these sharks are real gentle. ...read more.

Nice list, but I wish I could add the Blue Whale, the largest creature ever on Earth.

2 Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea, extinct relatives include mammoths and mastodons. Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive skin. The trunk is used for breathing, bringing food and water to the mouth, and grasping objects. Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. The large ear flaps assist in ...read more.
3 Giraffe The giraffe is a tall African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant- hoofed herbivorous- on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. Most recently, researchers ...read more.
4 Hippo The common hippopotamus, or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus.
5 Polar Bear The polar bear is a carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses.
6 Brown Bear
7 Saltwater Crocodile The saltwater crocodile, also known as the estuarine crocodile, Indo-Pacific crocodile, marine crocodile, sea crocodile or informally as saltie, is the largest of all living reptiles, as well as the largest riparian predator in the world.
8 Great White Shark The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to 6.1 ...read more.
9 Rhino A rhinoceros, commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea.) Two of the extant species are ...read more.
10 blue whale The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 metric tons (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...read more.
The Contenders
11 Horse The horse is an odd-toed, hoofed mammal of the taxonomic family Equidae whose sole major subspecies (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticate, although wild subspecies have survived into the modern period. All subspecies, including the two extant ones, descend from the Pleistocene Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral ...read more.
12 Gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of ...read more.
13 Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins), and the extinct Lipotidae (baiji or Chinese ...read more.
14 Lion The lion (Panthera leo) is a large cat of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is ...read more.
15 Leopard The leopard is one of the five "big cats" in the genus Panthera. It is one of the most adaptable and the most widespread big cat; it's secrets being:well camouflaged fur; its opportunistic hunting behaviour, broad diet, and strength to move heavy carcasses into trees; its ability to adapt to various ...read more.