Discover the fastest, strongest and loudest creatures on the planet in the new Animal Record-Breakers exhibition at the Natural History Museum at Tring, Hertfordshire, from 6 February to 8 July 2012.
A child finds out how she would look with a set of water buffalo horns, the longest horns grown by a living animal.
Get ready for London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and brush-up on your facts about animal champions in this free exhibition. It is filled with fun activities and games, such as comparing your target practice skills with those of the archerfish, which can spit water 1.5m through the air to hit insects with deadly accuracy.
‘Every 4 years we watch and marvel as our own species competes for Olympic gold,' says Alice Adams, Interpretation and Learning Manager at the Museum at Tring.
'But the animals featured throughout the exhibition have adapted these amazing skills for survival, and some of the skills are sure to be surprising.'
At the top of the podium for the most acute sense of smell are male emperor moths. They can detect a female from almost 11km away!
Mako shark head specimen. Sharks have a better sense of smell than any other fish. They can smell blood in the water from 500 metres away.
Leatherback turtles take home gold for the deepest recorded dive made by a reptile, reaching depths of 1,200m.
And humpback whales win the long-distance event by travelling more than 16,000km each year on the round trip from Costa Rica to Antarctica.
The Animal Record-Breakers exhibition is inspired by the Natural History Museum book Animal Records by Mark Carwardine.
Did you know elephants can swim 30 miles without stopping? Or that an Okapi can clean its own eyes with its tongue?
Be amazed by the facts, the latest discoveries and more than 200 colour photographs in the definitive guide to the most exceptional creatures on Earth.
'Animal Records contains every animal extravagance...irresistible' – The Times