10 amazing animals that eat a lot of food for Survival

You might feel that all animals that eat a lot must be carnivores but you might be surprised that most animals on our list are herbivores. Thanks to nature for that otherwise human species would have extinct long ago. Here, we have made a list of 10 amazing animals that eat a lot of food for the survival of their race.

Which are the animals that eat a lot of food?

Numerous creatures in the animal realm need on vast amounts of food to survive. These animals often have fast metabolisms and need to eat a lot of food to keep up with their energy requirements. Animals with high metabolic rates and opportunistic feeders are the main reasons for heavy eating. It’s crucial to remember that animal feeding habits and nutritional needs might vary significantly based on their species, location, and environment. While certain animals can absorb and store vast amounts of food effectively due to unique adaptations, other creatures must rely on sporadic food sources to meet their nutritional demands

10. Grasshopper-A large swarm can eat 1.8 million metric tons of vegetation per day

Source: Giant Swarms Of Grasshoppers Devouring Crops by The Survival Economist available under license Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) on Youtube

Grasshoppers are small animals that eat a lot vegetation which is enough to feed 81 million humans. Although a single grasshopper is harmless it only weighs less than 2 grams. It can eat vegetation only equivalent to its own body weight. But a large swarm of grasshoppers can be 460 square miles in size and has 40 and 80 million grasshoppers in the pack. Once these grasshoppers enter the gregarious phase in which they move faster and are able to mate, a generation of grasshoppers can boom twentyfold times every 3 months. It is in this phase that grasshoppers form into oppressive swarms that can blacken the skies and destroy crops per day.

Read more: Grashoppers complete information here

9. Pigs-These animal eats a lot and needs 4-8 kg of swill every day

Source: Flickr; Image by:ILRI

Pig really grows super fast and thus need a lot of energy to sustain that growth. Pigs are lazy animals that eat a lot and might basically overeat many times. For this reason, giving concentrated vegetation is not economical, thus farmers feed them swill to satisfy their hunger. Pigs are animals that eats anything thus grows 400-900 grams in weight on a daily basis and gains 80kg of weight in just 6 months. The fact is said that 24 hours without water can kill a pig.

8. Hippo-can eat 40 kilograms of food per night

Hippos are animals that eat a lot daily, about 1 to 1.5% of their own body weight which goes around 1500-4500kg. They are strict vegetarian who mainly eats leaves, roots of plants, fruits, and little grass. These animals have low metabolic rates and can survive weeks without food. They also have a multi-chambered stomach which can hold two day’s worth of vegetation at a time.

7. Siberian tigers- can eat up to 50 kg of meat in one meal

These are animals that eat a lot of protein which is similar to a human eating 400 hamburgers. However, an adult Siberian tiger needs to eat 9-11 kg of meat daily to survive the cold climate of Russia. These animals eat a lot favorite and their favorite food is deer and boar. For survival in harsh freezing climates, they also eat rabbits, fish, rodents, small cat family members, and even baby bears. The fact is true that their night vision is 6 times better than us humans.

6. Brown bears- Requires 20,000 calories of food on daily basis during fall

Source by: Peter Hamel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Brown bears are animals that eat a lot before they hibernate through winters which is around 3 to 6 pounds of fat each day. Brown bears are omnivorous has both vegetarian (flowers, berries, grasses, and roots) and non-vegetarian (salmon, ground squirrels, eggs, and caribou) diets just like humans. These bears have huge bodies and participate in activities like foraging, hunting, and hibernation that require a lot of energy. During seasons other than fall (spring and summer) these bears eat a little less; than 8,000 calories on a daily basis.

Read more: 30+ food that bear craves for eating

5. Black-footed cats-Most efficient hunter 1 kill every 50 min at night

Source: Youtube channel Animals Descriptions

Black-footed cats are animals that eats constantly throughout the night in all weather. They do this because they have an unusually high metabolic rate which forces them to hunt constantly. These heavy eaters take only short resting periods and hunt at a very high success rate on an average of 10-14 rodents and small birds are killed overnight. Their high-calorie diet consists of 72% of mammals and birds(26%), leaving only 2% of the diet to spiders, reptiles, and insects.

Read more: Blackfooted cat hunting habits

4. Humming Bird-Feeds on the nectar of 1,000-2,000 flowers every day

Hummingbird has the highest Metabolic rates of all animal kingdom since their heart can beat at an incredible 1200 beats per minute. The fact is if you have to use energy as quickly as a hummingbird you would have to eat a fridge full of 300 hamburgers every day. They consume bugs and nectar about half their body weight by feeding every 10 to 15 minutes. They not only heavily burn energy during the day but also save energy at night. Hummingbirds achieve this by using Torpor method where they lower their body temperature to save energy just like in nighttime hibernation. These hungriest birds can flap their wings excellently at 200 wingbeats per second.

Read more: 10 small but powerful animals to blow your mind

3. African elephant- Eats 160 kg of vegetation every day

The majority of these animal’s main diet of these largest land animals is hay and can eat daily 300 pounds of it. They also eat bark, fruit, leaves, grasses, bamboo, and various other foliage. African elephants are not only heavy eaters but also heavy poopers as well. Adult elephant are animals that eat a lot spending mostly 80% of their day time only eating vegetation. Due to this reason, they can surprisingly produce up to 100 kilograms of dung per day.

Read more: Smelling elephant dung can cure headache and bleeding nose

2. Blue Whale –This monster eater eats 4-6 tons of Krill a day

The largest animal in the world weighs around 150-400 tons. Blue Whale are animals that eat a lot of fish to maintain their body weight. Surprisingly they do not feed on big fish instead feed on a swamp of small ones. Its minimum calorie requirement is 1.5-2 million calories but also can overeat to the range of 20-50 million calories. Its big stomach leads to such a monster appetite and when krills are not nearby to feed, they also feed on copepods and small fish. But unlike Pygmy Shrews, the blue whale can last without food for 6 months. Thus blue whales are heavy eaters but also have good self-control.

Read more: Biggest whales can eat calories equivalent to 80,000 Big Macs a day

1. Pygmy Shrew-Has to eat food 3x its own body weight every day or it’ll die

Source: Gunnar Creutz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In order to survive a Pygmy Shrew must eat every 2 to 3 hours in order to consume 200 to 300% of its body weight in food each day. These animals have a heartbeat of 1000 beats per minute and really need a lot of food to keep their exceptional metabolism going. For this, they have to keep on capturing prey every 15 to 30 minutes and 1 hour without food means certain death. Thus these heavy eaters never sleep for more than just a few minutes.

Altogether this was our list of animals that eat a lot of food for survival. Hopefully, you liked our list feel free to subscribe or check out other content on our site.

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