Amazing Animals That Eat a Lot of Food

We all have that friend who eats huge portions of food but never puts on weight. If there was such a competition, my friend might have gone pro. He can eat so much, and my friends and I often compare him to various big animals. Here comes the question what are the animals that eat a lot of food?

I started reading about animals that eat a lot of food out of curiosity.

I saw some interesting animals. To my surprise, not only the big animals eat a lot, but also the small animals.

Animals That Eat a Lot of Food

Blue Whale

First on the list of animals that eat a lot of food is the blue whale. Being the biggest animal that have ever lived, the blue whale has an enormous appetite. These aquatic animals consume an abundance of food.

In a single day, the average blue whale consumes 16 tons of krill. In one mouthful, they can consume nearly half a million calories (not ideal for most diet plans).

Although this may seem like a lot if you consider that a blue whale weighs about 200 tons, 16 tons of food per day is not proportionally that much.

While they are undoubtedly large, measuring about the same length as three school buses, they are actually relatively slender, smooth beasts.

Krill, the small crustaceans that make up the blue whale’s diet, are high in protein and low in fat and are a source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Maybe the “Blue Whale Diet Plan” isn’t so bad?

Hummingbirds

The hummingbird is at the other end of the food chain. Their diet consists mainly of nectar, which has little nutritional value.

In fact, nectar is basically sugar water (fortunately, hummingbirds have no teeth to decompose). Whereas a high-sugar, low-everything diet would be disastrous for humans.

However, hummingbirds require this kind of diet to survive. They have one of the greatest metabolic rates of any living thing, which explains why.

Their wings are capable of flapping 80 times per second. Their hearts have to beat 20 times every second just to keep up.

Because they require so much energy when they fly, they have to expend almost twice their body weight each day to survive!

Additionally, to nectar, these small birds also feed on mosquitoes, ants, spiders, beetles, and mosquitoes.

Burmese Pythons

The Burmese python may not eat as often as some other animals, but it doesn’t hold back when it does.

These giant snakes can grow to about 23 feet (7m) and weigh up to 200 pounds (90 kg), making them the largest snakes in the world along with the anaconda.

The Burmese python, like the majority of snakes, has a very modest metabolism, necessitating only a single feeding every two weeks. These foods are plentiful, though.

Goats, deer, and even alligators have all been reported to be consumed by Burmese pythons! They eat their prey whole, bones, teeth and all, and can eat animals up to 50 percent of their own size in one sitting.

Interestingly, unlike other animals, a python’s prey does not need to be completely inside its stomach to begin digestion. It can begin digesting prey as soon as it enters and breaks off bones, teeth, claws, and scales (awesome!).

The whole process of digestion usually takes about 5-6 days, which explains why he doesn’t get hungry more than once a fortnight.

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Giant Pandas

These 200-300 pound bears are actually pretty big, though not that big for a bear. However, they have a very specialized diet, unlike other bears.

Actually, bamboo is pretty much the sole food that giant pandas consume. Bamboo is quite hard to digest and not particularly nutritive.

Even giant pandas, whose diet is 99 percent bamboo, can only digest 20 percent of it. In other words, they need to eat a lot of it to survive.

A giant panda spends an average of 12 hours a day eating and can eat 15 percent of its body weight in that time.

They spend the majority of the remaining hours of the day sleeping and digesting. It does not seem like the most well-adapted way of life, and, indeed, it is not.

Giant pandas are bears of the order Carnivora, meaning meat eaters. Their digestive system is not that of an animal that eats 99% plant matter, but that of one that eats a fair amount of meat.

Sadly, because they have evolved to occupy a very narrow evolutionary niche, these black-and-white organisms are extremely reliant on their environment. The degradation of the bamboo forests, which are essential for their survival, is the largest threat to the 1,500 giant pandas still living in the wild.

Elephants

Talk about animals that eat a lot of food, the elephant, the world’s largest land animal, has a huge appetite. However, unlike the blue whale, an elephant’s diet is not exceptionally nutritious and is quite difficult to digest.

Elephants can’t absorb a large portion of their diet, like the majority of other animals that consume plants. In fact, only around 50% of the food they eat is digested by them.

Elephants require a lot of food, just like the giant panda. In quest of food, an elephant can walk up to 12.5 miles (20 km), and on average, they eat 350 pounds (158 kg) of food each day.

Elephants eat bark, grass, fruit (if they are lucky enough to find it), twigs, and leaves.

Unfortunately, due to habitat destruction, they sometimes come into contact with humans in search of food and devour entire crop fields in one sitting.

This leads to conflict with humans, which is rarely good for elephants or indeed any other animal.

Read Also: Animals With Big Feet

Tigers

Tigers are hypercarnivores, which means their diet consists of more than 70 percent meat. In the case of lions, like other big cats, they are almost exclusively carnivores.

Meat is highly nutritious; However, achieving this requires a lot of energy. Tigers can weigh up to 660 pounds (300 kg) and are mostly muscle.

These strong big cats are ambush predators, capable of unleashing explosive blasts of immense power. They also move over large areas, sometimes walking or swimming tens of miles in a single day.

Thus, tigers need to eat a highly nutritious diet. In a single sitting, an adult tiger can consume up to 100 pounds (45 kg), even though they typically don’t eat again for a day or two after such a substantial meal.

Tigers will eat anything worth their time, including small animals such as rabbits or monkeys and very large animals, such as buffalo, crocodiles, and even bears.

On rare occasions, tigers have even been known to attack elephants and rhinoceroses!

Read Also: Evil Animals

American Pygmy Shrews

This little creature consumes a lot of food! The American pygmy shrew is the second-smallest mammal on the planet, but despite its little size, it has one of the biggest appetites.

It has an unusually high metabolism and needs to consume three times its body weight each day to survive. This results in feeding every 15-30 minutes!

If a pygmy shrew goes without food for even an hour, it will starve to death.

As a result, the American pygmy shrew spends most of its time eating and only sleeps for brief periods at a time.

One of the reasons for its fast metabolism is its size. Because it has such a large surface area-to-volume ratio, it loses heat very easily, requiring it to burn more calories to avoid hypothermia.

American pygmy shrews are insectivores, which means their diet is high in protein and highly nutritious.

Locusts

There’s a reason the phrase locusts are often associated with “plague.” A locust must consume its own weight in food each day.

Considering its only 2 grams (a fraction of an ounce), that doesn’t sound particularly impressive. However, where there is one locust, there are often many, many more.

Desert locusts only spawn in certain environmental conditions, which are not frequent. The result is that all of them come together, creating a crowd of billions of people.

Between them, these swarms eat hundreds of tons of plants, destroying entire agricultural systems and threatening economies around the world.

A swarm of locusts spreads over 40 miles (65 km) of land and will devour anything in its path.

Bar-Tailed Godwits

With the exception of preceding migration, the bar-tailed godwit eats a diet that is generally normal.

This bird has the longest migration of any animal, traveling more than 6,800 miles (11,000 km) from Alaska to New Zealand each year. This journey takes them about ten days of non-stop flying.

To make these incredible journeys, bar-tailed godwits must have an ample supply of food.

In preparation, they eat enough food to double their body weight in fat (fortunately, they don’t wear clothes and have to outgrow their entire wardrobe every year).

Tasmanian Devils

Speaking of animals that eat a lot, the Tasmanian devil must be mentioned.

These carnivorous marsupials are widely known for their fearless personality. They are always ready to battle, regardless of the size of the opponent.

In addition to their fearsome characters, Tasmanian devils have extremely powerful jaws. strong enough to break bones.

With this physical prowess, they can consume practically any food they put their jaws on, including carrion, small kangaroos, small animals, and even birds and snakes.

A typical Tasmanian devil weighs 20 pounds on average and consumes 2 pounds of food per day. These little hunters, however, will consume up to 40% of their entire body weight in a single sitting if they are unclear of when they will catch their next meal.

Also, these greedy creatures are so full that they are capable of consuming all that food in less than 1 hour.

Black-Footed Cats

The black-footed cat is the final animal on our list of animals that eat a lot. This cat may look small and cute, but it is a deadly predator with a huge appetite. Their unusually high metabolic rate leaves them almost constantly hungry and in need of food.

Each night, or every 50 minutes, these little cats kill 10 to 14 prey items. And they are indeed among the most efficient hunters in the world and arguably the most efficient of the cat family.

Black-footed cats have a hunting success rate of more than 60 percent, three times that of tigers. Black-footed cats, unlike lions and tigers, must eat frequently to maintain their rapid metabolism since the prey they eat is so small.

Because they kill a lot, they expend a lot of energy, so they need more food, which is a vicious circle.