Largest Animal

#animals - There are estimated to the less than 25,000 Blue Whale's left in the world's oceans, no more than 11 percent of the 1911 Blue Whale population.

The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived: even larger than the largest dinosaur. A member of the order Cetacea, the maximum recorded weight of a Blue Whale was 190 tonnes (209 tons) for a specimen measuring 30 m (100 ft) in length, while longer ones, up to 33.3 m (110 ft), have been recorded but not weighed.

Blue Whale populations have been severely depleted by whaling and approximately 360,000 Blue Whales are estimated to have been caught and killed in the Southern Hemisphere during the 20th century. Before whaling the largest population of Blue Whales was in the Antarctic, numbering between 202,000 and 311,000. A 2002 report estimated there were just 5,000 to 12,000 Blue Whales worldwide located in five or more groups. The Blue Whale population is generally accepted to have increased in recent years.

Source: Extreme Science, Wikipedia, New South Wales Government, The IUCN Red List