The 5 toughest animals in the world

When it comes to deciding the 5 toughest animals in the world, aspects like strength and speed shouldn’t be considered. Take the Peregrine falcon for example, it is the fastest-moving animal on the planet with a diving speed of over 200 miles per hour, but when considering toughness, it succumbs to things like temperature and gases much easier than the common house fly.

(The Peregrine falcon, the fastest moving living thing on the planet, with a dive speed of over 200 mph)

Toughness should be measured in survivability and resistance to damage, so the following 5 animals were chosen because they can withstand more than any other creature on Earth.

1) Tardigrade

These tiny creatures measure only 0.5mm but are also the only known species to be able to survive in outer space. They can last for only a few hours, but considering everything else on earth would die in seconds, that’s quite impressive. They can withstand high levels of radiation that could kill a human in hours, and are also resistant to high temperatures, with one experiment involving boiling them for several minutes, of which most survived.

Tests have shown them to be around 1000 times more resistant to radiation than a human, and be able to withstand pressures close to 6,000 times that of Earth’s gravity. They cover the whole earth and can be found in every country, and unless humans destroy the actual planet itself, they are guaranteed to outlast us.

2) Honey badger

Weighing up to 16kg for a fully grown male and standing at the height of a small dog, the honey badger is known as being one of the most dangerous and toughest animals you can encounter in the wild. They are known for their fearlessness and aggressive nature and appear in many videos where they fight off everything from tigers and hyenas to snakes and scorpions.

They have thick skin that’s resistant to dog bites and small blades and are almost immune to poisons. When stung or bitten by something with strong enough venom to kill something much bigger, they simply take a short nap and sleep it off, before carrying on with the hunt.

3) Cockroach

They have been around since before the dinosaurs and will continue to be around long after humans have gone. They can live for up to one week without a head because they breathe through other parts of their body. The nervous structure keeps it running and it will only die due to lack of water.

They can’t survive the levels of radiation released by a nuclear weapon, but they can withstand levels significantly higher than that of a human. Their overall resistance against temperature and weather conditions means they can survive in all climates, and the ability to be able to hold their breath for over half an hour allows them to escape into the smallest of spaces.

4) Scorpions

These creatures are classed as arachnids and have existed for over 400 million years. Many species of scorpions glow under black light due to the high levels of radiation they absorb from the sun, but this ability makes them naturally highly resistant to it. It isn’t clear exactly how much they can tolerate, but it’s much more than a measly cockroach or human.

Their size is the only thing that lets them down, but powerful venoms and plate armor make them something to be avoided. They can also survive for up to a year without food and can dig themselves into the ground to avoid storms and predators.

5) Humans

The Bubonic plague killed around 50% of the population of Europe, and unknown amounts around the rest of the world, but overall didn’t wipe out more than 10% of Earth’s total population. The Second World War was the largest and most violent conflict in human history, and between 70 and 80 million people lost their lives, but from a world population perspective, this wasn’t even 3%.

Every time a new disease turns up or a war happens, people try to create something to prevent it and the amount of people who die in comparison to everyone on earth is tiny. All of the recent diseases haven’t come close to killing 1% of all humans, and neither have all the recent wars. It seems that we can survive because of our ability to create and adapt, and if something did turn up that could wipe us out, it’s likely that every other living thing on earth would go with us.