Which Animal Has the Most Voracious Appetite?

It costs a lot of clams to feed a walrus -- literally. According to the folks at Sea World, adult walruses love to dine on mollusks, and an adult can gobble up between 3,000 and 6,000 clams in a single meal. Typically, walruses eat twice a day, taking in up to 6 percent of their body weight by nightfall. But variables exist. For instance, a pregnant female walrus will dramatically increase her intake by as much as 40 percent, while males take in much less during breeding season.

Walruses are also migratory mammals, and they spend much more time foraging for food when they head south in the fall than they do when they return north in the spring. As far as the contents of their meals, walruses love bivalves, but they will also chew up worms, sea cucumbers, crustaceans, gastropods, and other small creatures. In desperate times, they will eat fish and even the remains of young seals.

The world of walruses:

The blue whale holds the title for having the most voracious appetite among animals. As the largest animal on Earth, it consumes up to 4 tons of krill per day during feeding season. This massive intake is necessary to sustain its equally massive body, which can weigh as much as 200 tons.

Despite their tiny size, hummingbirds have an incredibly high metabolism that requires them to eat more than half their body weight in food each day. They feed every 10 to 15 minutes and can visit up to 2,000 flowers daily to meet their energy needs, making their appetite proportionally one of the most voracious.

Shrews have an exceptionally high metabolic rate, which necessitates constant eating—sometimes consuming their own body weight in food daily. They have adapted to have sharp, spike-like teeth and a keen sense of smell to hunt efficiently. Without frequent meals, they can starve to death in just a few hours.

The king cobra is known for its voracious appetite, particularly during the breeding season. It can consume large prey such as other snakes and is capable of eating up to 75% of its own body weight in a single meal. This allows it to survive for months without eating again.

A locust swarm can be one of the most voracious phenomena in the animal kingdom. A single swarm, which can contain billions of locusts, is capable of consuming crops equivalent to the food for 35,000 people in just one day, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Their collective appetite can lead to devastating agricultural losses.

The great white shark's appetite plays a crucial role in marine ecosystems by helping to regulate the populations of their prey, which includes seals, sea lions, and fish. As apex predators, their feeding habits maintain the balance of species below them in the food chain, ensuring a healthy and diverse oceanic environment.