Hobbies And Interests
Ants
Though you can watch ants shred food larger than themselves into bits before carrying it to their nests, they are nonetheless very strong. The average ant can carry food five times its weight using its mandibles alone. If there are no other ants, a single worker can return food 25 times its own weight when it uses its entire body to drag the item. Of course, strength varies from species to species. Leafcutter ants can carry 30 times their own body weight; however, there are also some species of ants that can carry up to 52 times their body weight.
Bees
When it comes to the difficult feat of flying and carrying food well beyond their own weight, honeybees rule the roost. One honeybee can carry 300 times its own weight. This feat is comparable to one person carrying 300 people her weight, or roughly one human carrying 15 tons. That kind of power is necessary for the honeybee, which travels to and fro while carrying the essence of 2,000 flowers for honey.
Beetles
The strongest animals in the world are beetles and not elephants. Elephants can carry only 25 percent of their own weight. That is peanuts compared to some beetles, which can carry hundreds and hundreds of times their own weight. The Hercules beetle comes in second place as the strongest animal in the world, as it can carry 850 times its own weight. Coming in first place is a species of horned dung beetle called Onthophagus taurus. These beetles can muster the strength to carry 1,141 times their own weight, even when feeding poorly. In human proportions this compares to a person being able to carry two double-decker buses at the same time. How did the beetles get so strong? The secret is not just its need for survival but also its drive for reproduction. Before any male horned dung beetle can mate with a female, it will must lock and cross horns with other males.