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So you think you're pretty strong?
Well, tear up your gym membership because you're no match for the
strongest creatures on the planet.
We're counting down the top 10 most extreme examples of animal strength,
and comparing them with human attempts to muscle their way into the record
books.
Discover that only the strong survive when you take life to The Most
Extreme.
Earth is a planet of extremes, extreme placesâ•” and extreme animals.
But some animals are more extreme than others.
Join us as we count down to find the most unusual and the most
extraordinary on The Most Extreme.
Powering straight into our countdown of extreme strength is the bear, the
strongest land mammal in North America.
Bears come in at number 10 because they love working out in the
wilderness.
After all, who needs a gym when there are 100 kilogram boulders lying
around?
But black bears don't roll rocks just to improve their physique.
They're more interested in the bugs under the boulders than working out
the muscles on their shoulders.
While looking for food keeps bears in peak physical condition, we found
other ways to build up our strength.
So why does working out work?
The human body has more than 650 different muscles.
They range in size from the massive gluteus maximus to a muscle just
1/10th the size of a flea.
It's found in your ear and protects your eardrum from loud noises, and no
matter how much you exercise, you'll never get more muscles.
The ones you've got will just get bigger.
But the only way we could be as big and strong as a bear was if we grew to
be 3 meters tall and weigh over 500 kilograms.
And since half of a bear's bodyweight is pure muscle, it's no wonder bears
are so much stronger than us.
And like any super athlete, all those muscles use an awful lot of energy,
which is why bears spend so much time looking for food.
The summer salmon run provides plenty of body building protein, but it also
brings fierce competition for the best fishing spots.
Grizzly bears are so strong that one swat from their massive paws could
break your back.
So it's no wonder that most people keep their distance, no matter how
much they're provoked.
The only way you could safely get up close and personal with a grizzly
would be to wear a serious suit of armor.
Our next contender can even outmuscle a grizzly.
You have to be tough to live on these rocky shores.
At number nine in the countdown is an animal so strong that we call it the
mussel.
This young shellfish will need all its strength just to find a foothold on
the rocks.
Fighting against the waves, it uses its muscular foot to hold on tight.
But it's not just the mussel's muscle that makes it extreme.
Adelle Heineman from the Aquarium of New Zealand knows that as these
shellfish get older, they grow the strongest beards in the world.
It seems that just like Samson, the secret of the mussel's strength is in
its hair.
These little threads that we can see coming off the mussel here, they're
called Bissus or Bissell threads and they're ultra strong.
They're kind of like our hair made of amino acids and they, the mussel
places them on the rock with a littlest foot that it's got inside it
and then it glues them there tight and strong.
That's why when you go to collect mussels and you pull them off the
rock, they're stuck on really tight.
Unlike us, mussels want to stick around forever, so it's no wonder
these shellfish have moved out of the seafood buffet and into the
laboratory.
Shipping industry is really interested in this glue that the mussels can
produce, because even the best glues that we produce at the moment aren't
as strong as this mussel glue.
They break down after a short time in salt water, whereas this mussel glue
lasts a lot longer.
Imagine what we could stick together with a little mussel superglue.
Unfortunately, there's a catch.
Scientists say you'll need to grind up over 10,000 mussels just to make 1
gram of glue, and at nearly $100,000 per kilogram, don't expect to see it
on the shelf at your supermarket anytime soon.
This shellfish maybe the highest paid muscle on the planet, but it's still
only number nine in our extreme countdown.
We've muscled our way past the first two contenders, but soon, we'll grab
the bull by the horns and lift the lid on animals so strong, they're the
eighth wonder of the world.
That's next on The Most Extreme.
At number eight in our countdown of extreme strength is a monster that's
powered its way into movie immortality.
King Kong may have been the greatest ape in the world, but the animal that
inspired the movie is far from monstrous.
At number eight in the countdown is the gorilla.
We're fascinated with gorillas because we're remarkably similar with one
notable exception.
Gorillas are much, much stronger.
Not even the strongest humans on the planet can compare to the power of the
gorilla.
Imagine if you were a weightlifter at the Olympic Games.
To compete for the gold medal, you'd have to be able to lift around 250
kilograms.
But what if you were as strong as a gorilla?
You'd easily set a new world record by lifting two family cars, that's over
2,000 kilograms.
The real heavyweight champion of a gorilla troop is the Silverback.
This male is so big and so strong that he dominates the rest of the family
group.
No wonder all the young males dream of one day finding enough gray fur on
their back to become the boss of their own troop.
But until then, they're happy trailing after their hero like little gorilla
groupies, and that's because nothing is more impressive than a Silverback
throwing his weight around.
Gorilla fights are short and to the point, unlike the battles of some
human gorillas.
For back in 1984, two of the world's strongest men ended up fighting for
the title in court.
Bill Kazmaier from Alabama lifted logs, playboy bunnies, and said he was
the strongest man on earth.
But then, so did John Wooten of Massachusetts, and he hauled trains,
hoisted trucks, and held back racing cars.
I'm simply the World's Strongest Man.
I am the World's Strongest Man.
As the winner of the World's Strongest Man competition, Kazmaier was so upset
by his rival that he took him to court.
Wooten responded by challenging Kazmaier to settle the dispute out of
court.
Kazmaier refused claiming that Wooten's stunts were just tricks.
In the end, the judge flexed his own judicial muscle and threw the case out
of court.
Sometimes, even the strongest creatures have to learn to take a
fall.
Gorillas maybe more than a match for the strongest men in the world, but
they're still only number eight in the countdown.
From powerful primates, bulging muscles, and brawny bears, coming up
is an animal so strong that it slides right off the scales.
That's next on The Most Extreme.
Floating in to number seven in our countdown of extreme strength is the
strongest animal in the Amazon.
There's only one creature out here with enough muscle to make our
countdown, and it's not the caiman crocodile.
The anaconda is number seven in the countdown because it's strong enough
to squeeze the life out of anything.
But how can a snake kill a croc?
To find out, you just have to ask Peter Taylor from the St. Louis Zoo.
Snakes asphyxiate their prey when they're using constriction as a method
by biting using the neck as the first coil, and then several of the midbody
coils which have a lot of power, and just tightening up just as the snake
is doing with some effect right now on my arm.
You can see there's very little space there and if I had a lung inside that
arm, I would not have room to breathe, and that would be a big problem for me
or for a small prey item.
So, it's a muscular tightening of the coils and rapid taking up of the slack
in between, a little like this.
All that muscle can be deadly.
But to really get to grips with how muscles work, you need to know that
there are actually three kinds of muscle.
Humans and snakes are able to control the muscles attached to the bones of
the skeleton.
You may not know it, but you're contracting more than 200 of these
skeletal muscles just to walk.
Skeletal muscles vary in size depending on the job they do, but all
of them can contract quickly and powerfully.
The problem is that they tire easily and have to rest between workouts.
But there are many other muscles in our body, and most of the time, we
don't even know we're using them.
Smooth muscles, like those found in our gut may take longer to contract,
but they don't tire easily, and luckily, the cardiac muscle is
tireless. For in an average lifetime, it will contract around 2.5 billion
times, and probably more if you meet an anaconda.
There's every reason to be scared of this snake.
The anaconda is the heaviest snake in the world.
It can weigh more than three men, and since the anaconda never stops
growing, eventually, the snake can become long enough to wrap itself
around a school bus.
So catching animals even the size of a deer should be no problem.
Luckily for the deer, the anaconda is built for strength, not speed.
So instead of chasing its prey, this snake lurks in the murky shallows just
waiting for an opportunity to wrap its lunch in a deadly embrace.
These are some of the strongest feet on earth.
They're so powerful, they can crush bone.
These are the feet of the ultimate winged predator, the eagle.
It's number six in the countdown because you have to be strong if you
want to pluck food out of the rainforest, and on the menu today is
monkey ala canopy.
For this African Crowned Eagle, it's time for some takeout.
Monkeys think they're safe because they're hiding inside the canopy, but
this eagle has short wings designed to let it maneuver through the branches.
Catching the monkey is one thing, but carrying it is something beyond even
our most powerful cargo planes.
This Starlifter is one of the largest freight planes on earth and can carry
up to 43,000 kilograms.
That's a lot of monkeys, but it's still only lifting about two-thirds of
its operating weight.
The eagle is number six in the countdown because it can carry up to
four times its own weight.
While the eagle's massive muscles make it a super bird, sometimes, even the
most ordinary people can possess super human strength.
Some super heroes are made not by radioactivity, spinach or by the
wearing of underwear over their trousers.
Sometimes, ordinary citizens can save the day thanks to adrenaline.
In a crisis, our body calls on our very own emergency response center,
the adrenal glands.
They produce hormones like adrenaline that sends the body into action mode,
and this is how sometimes, people can get superhuman strength.
But even some eagles need help from a superhero.
These are Steller's sea eagle chicks.
To survive, they're going to have to outmuscle the competition, and that
includes their sibling.
High in the Arctic Circle, their parents can only feed one chick, so
the weaker of the two will be bullied to death.
No wonder eagles are the strongest birds in the world.
Right from the moment they hatch, they discover that only the strong survive.
Eagles may be strong, but they're still only flying in at number six in
the countdown.
That's because coming up are animals so strong that civilizations were
built on their backs, and we'll find the animal that inspired this 97-pound
weakling.
That's coming up next on The Most Extreme.
The next contender in our countdown of extreme strength proves that not all
traffic is powered by combustion engines, for in Asia, road hogs are
actually road cows.
Pulling in to number five is the ox, the big rig of the animal world.
It's a green machine because it runs all day on nothing but hay.
For 6,000 years, the ox has helped us carry heavy loads.
But in the wild, their cousins have a different use for their massive
strength.
These raging bulls are fighting for females. For when push comes to shove,
only the strongest male will take home the herd.
Our ancestors were obviously impressed by the strength of oxen, which is why
they became the farm vehicle of choice.
While one ox is strong, people have found ways to harness the power of 2
or 4 or 30.
These days, they've been replaced by the tractor.
But what's so great about tractors?
After all, a pair of oxen can pull more than 900 kilograms across rugged
terrain. So can a tractor, but it's 50 times more expensive to run.
You never need to overhaul an ox.
And how often do you hear people being called as strong as a tractor?
Of course, that doesn't stop some people from trying.
These are the cutest animals in the countdown.
Baby Bengal tigers are number four in the countdown because when they grow
up, they'll become the biggest and strongest cats in the world.
A fully grown tiger can leap over 6 meters and stand 3 meters tall, but
even this big baby retains a fondness for milk.
Take a close look at a tiger and you can clearly see the bulging muscles
that became an inspiration for one of the world's most famous musclemen.
Charles Atlas was once a 97-pound weakling, but then after watching big
cats at the local zoo, he developed a series of exercises based on dynamic
tension.
He transformed not only his body, but his wallet because he sold his plan to
millions and so became the grandfather of the modern fitness industry.
It's hard to imagine just how strong the tiger really is when you see it at
rest.
Those enormous muscles in the paws and jaws seem harmless when used against
pesky flies.
But when the tiger is hungry, all that power is focused into one explosive
charge.
A single bite is strong enough to sever the spinal cord and then the
tiger uses its enormous strength to drag its meal to a safe spot.
How would you like to be strong enough to lift a domestic cow over a 2-meter
high wall?
No wonder we're scared of tigers.
So far, we've trained with tigers, battled with bulls, and eaten with
eagles, but coming up are sisters so strong, they give new meaning to girl
power.
That's next on The Most Extreme.
The next contender in our countdown of extreme strength can be found in
tropical forests around the world.
You just have to take a close look at the leaves to find signs of
weightlifters at work.
Chewing its way into number three in the countdown is the leafcutter ant.
It may be small, but it can carry slices of leaf more than 50 times its
own weight.
Imagine if you were as strong as an ant.
If you could lift like an ant, you'd never need a tow truck.
That's because every time you had engine trouble, you could simply pick
up the vehicle and carry it to the mechanic.
Raising 50 times your weight would be like lifting a truck weighing nearly
3,000 kilograms, and you'd be able to carry it an incredible 13 kilometers.
Ants are so strong that just imagine what would happen to our world if they
grew a little larger.
H.G. Wells' Empire of the Ants, for they shall inherit the earth sooner
than you think.
If we're lucky, leafcutter ants will inherit the earth because they're
strictly vegetarian and it would be a world run by females because all
worker ants are sisters.
This is one case where females are definitely not the weaker sex,
although not even leafcutter ants are strong enough to take on every
intruder.
These soldiers will fight to their death trying to protect the most
powerful ant of all.
The ant queen controls the whole colony and is as big as a mouse.
No workers dare step out of line with this mother.
This queen rules an army so powerful that in only a few hours, it can strip
all the leaves from a tree.
But our next contender is so strong it just rips the whole tree out of the
ground.
What's big, gray, and strong enough to be number two in the countdown?
The elephant, the strongest land mammal on the planet.
When it comes to moving timber, in some societies, nothing works better.
For more than two and a half thousand years in Asia, civilizations have been
built on the back of the elephant, but it wasn't just their enormous strength
that got them the job, elephants respond to over 40 commands, most of
them unspoken.
Try to do that with a logging truck.
Asian elephants may be smart, but they're not as strong as their African
cousins.
That's because African elephants are huge.
How would you like to get between two bull elephants with a combined weight
of 10 tons?
Elephants are so strong that nothing stands in their way.
The advantage of being so big and so strong is that nothing is brave enough
to eat you.
Such jumbo-sized animal could have difficulty reaching things to eat
themselves if it wasn't for that amazing trunk.
It's extraordinarily versatile.
It's good for feeding and drinking.
It can both suck and blow, sniff and feel, and can even be used as a
snorkel for breathing underwater.
It's the most sensitive part of the elephant's body, and yet it's strong
enough to lift more than 250 kilograms.
It takes baby elephants a couple of years to master all the tricks of the
trunk because it's incredibly complicated.
Just like the human arm, the trunk is made up of six major muscle groups,
but there are no bones inside the trunk.
Instead, the muscles are subdivided into more than 100,000 separate units,
which can be controlled to make the trunk as versatile as the human hand.
But sometimes, elephants are just too strong for their own good.
The strongest locks in the world couldn't stop these burglars from
breaking and entering.
Bags of grain are enough incentive for an elephant to push over a building,
but even this isn't enough to take the elephant to the top of our extreme
countdown.
We've seen the nine contenders.
They're the best of the best.
Only one animal is a more extreme muscle machine.
It's number one and it's coming up next on The Most Extreme.
The most extreme power lifters in the countdown have been immortalized in
museum collections all over the world.
Their huge skeletons are a lasting reminder of their awesome power.
But don't bother looking in the galleries, for the number one animal
in the countdown is kept in a drawer.
The strongest animal in our extreme countdown is the rhinoceros beetle.
It's number one because weight for weight, this is the strongest animal
on the planet.
People in Thailand are so amazed by the strength of the male rhino beetle
that they trap a female beetle inside a special log to encourage the males
to do what they do best.
Bets are placed on which beetle is the strongest.
The winner gets the girl, and the loser gets thrown off the log.
So just how strong is the rhinoceros beetle?
Some researchers have estimated that a rhino beetle can lift 800 times its
own weight.
Imagine if we were as strong as this armor-plated insect.
That would be like us lifting a tank, all 65 tons of it.
So why is the rhino beetle so strong?
Well, for its size, it has far more muscles than we do.
These beetles don't have bones. Their muscles are inside their skeleton. So
all that armor plating means there's many more places for muscles to attach
to.
And so, with more muscles inside a strong skeleton, the rhinoceros beetle
gets the optimal leverage needed to produce truly extreme strength.
No wonder then, when it comes to strength, the rhinoceros beetle really
is The Most Extreme.