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Abnormally Large Animals

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Waseda chapter.

(Cover photo from here)

When I was just a wee tot, I loved pretending that I was an explorer crouching in the grass looking for grasshoppers. That was what I passionately loved in first grade. I couldn’t care less about the new swings or the big bouncy balls that all my peasant friends wanted, all I wanted to do during recess was to catch as many grasshoppers as I could find. Heck, I even begged my mom to get me an insect catching kit (which I obviously didn’t need but wanted so badly because I thought those cool gadgets would make my insect collector persona look more polished). But since my mom wasn’t persuaded by my pleas, I had to settle with an old jam jar with tiny holes poked on the lid (such blasphemy, six-year-old me thought). One day during recess while I was just doing my usual biz, I came across the biggest grasshopper I’ve ever seen in my life.  My school was located on top of a mountain thus it’s not a complete shocker when someone comes across a snake or wild rabbits. But a humongous grasshopper? Boy, did my jaws drop. The grasshopper was 30 cm long and 8 cm tall. Okay, my memory might be a little bit foggy, and because I was small and short, things tend to look bigger than they actually are, but I remembered calling for my teacher and my teacher being as surprised and gobsmacked as I was.

I was reminded of this incident after I went to the zoo last weekend while I was browsing through the insect section, and it suddenly piqued my curiosity – What are some other gross, abnormally large creatures that inhabit on our planet earth? Which is why after the zoo, I decided to google abnormally large animals and this is what I found:

(Warning: These pictures might be repulsive to some of you. If you think regular sized frogs are too slimy and too ew then there is a high chance that you might not enjoy these pictures.)

Grasshopper

Okay, this isn’t as big as the grasshopper that I saw in first grade. But I know what I saw.

Goldfish

These big fishies are the result of people flushing unwanted goldfish down the toilet. Some survive and because without the restraint of fishtanks, these goldfish are able to grow into a size that we do not normally see at a home setting.

Praying Mantis

I do not understand why anyone would let a Praying Mantis to chill on his/her head.

Rabbit

Darius, the world’s largest rabbit is 4ft long! 

Bat

I’m not too sure what I feel about this picture.

and also Tiny Frog…

Like how I stumbled upon the giant grasshopper, I also found this little guy a few years ago… should’ve kept it and made it mine.

I hope you find these mildly interesting like I did. The earth is a very cool place. Thanks for reading (looking at the pictures I found), I’ll see you next time.

Image credits: 1 2 3 4 5

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