Gentle Giants in Nature
Photo Credits - Kevin Schafer
25/11/2025
Big, round, and proud – who are the current heavyweights in Nature? Can you name any of these gentle giants before reading the article?
Giants – they get a bad rep, don’t they?
In Nature, some of the biggest species are actually some of the friendliest. We have a few here to prove it, starting with our current gentle giant of the moment…
Giant Armadillo
Size: Giant Armadillos are the largest of all Armadillo species, weighing in at up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and can grow to a length of 1.5 meters (5 feet) from snout to tail.
Bony, horny, and distinctive – these chonkers have their own special armour to protect them from the threats of the wild. They’re also packing some serious nails; their forefingers have the largest claws of any living mammal. Bigger than those of a polar bear! They’re not aggressive, though; they’ll use their nails to dig up snacks and make burrows.
Manatee
Size: Adult West Indian and West African Manatees average about 3 m (10 ft.) in length. Large individuals may reach lengths of up to 4 m (13 ft.). Average adult weights are approximately 363 to 544 kg (800-1,200 lb.).
Also known as ‘sea cows’, Manatees are graceful swimmers despite their large size. They grow between 8 and 13 feet long – beast mode – and have an average lifespan of 40 years. They never leave the warm, shallow coastal waters and rivers you’ll spot them in, but like any marine mammal, Manatees must breathe air at the surface to survive. Normally, Manatees surface every 3 to 4 minutes but can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes.
Whale Shark
Size: 60 ft
“I’m the biggest fish in the seaaaaaa…” As the Whale Shark sings in our episode of Animals in Therapy, which you can watch below. These giants grow up to 60 feet long and weigh as much as 21 tons. Despite being sharks, Whale Sharks are filter feeders, so they gulp gallons of water at a time and filter out the good stuff with their big teeth. They live to over 100 years old, and they’re big ol’ softies.
Giraffe
Size: 14 to 19 feet
Looooong and friendly. Giraffes are social animals, and they often use physical contact, like neck rubbing or grooming, to get closer to their mates and lovers. In the wild, mother Giraffes take turns watching over a group of calves within the herd (a crèche). When this calf isn’t socialising with the other youngsters in the group, she’ll be under the protective and affectionate care of her mother. And by the way, although only four weeks old, this calf already stands seven feet tall!
The real question is, why do they use their wee to find boo?
Moose
Size: Height at shoulder: 5 to 6.5 feet, though the largest subspecies, the Alaskan Moose, can exceed 2.1 meters.
Big ol’ Moose – the largest of all the deer species. You can recognise them by their huge antlers, which can spread 6 feet from end to end. These giants are so tall that they prefer to browse higher grasses and shrubs because lowering their heads to ground level can be difficult. In winter, they eat shrubs and pinecones, but they also scrape snow with their large hooves to clear areas for browsing on mosses and lichens. These hooves also act as snowshoes, supporting the heavy animals on soft snow and in muddy or marshy ground.
Atlas Moth
Size: Wingspan stretching up to 27 centimetres
The goliaths of the insect world, the Atlas Moth is a gentle giant. (Behind every oversized moth is a very hungry caterpillar.) The Atlas Moth is among the biggest insects on the planet, with a wingspan stretching up to 27 centimetres across – that’s wider than a human handspan. And the caterpillars of the species reach up to 12 centimetres long, spending every spare second eating leaves of cinnamon, citrus fruit, guava and Jamaican cherry trees.
Any of these remind you of anyone? Send to a giant friend who loves Nature – they’ll eat this up. Then head over to our merch store and grab yourself a Giant Attention Seeker t-shirt, for your friend… or just for you.
More of the latest from the Edge zine… ↴
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