Nature's towers of strength

The world’s strongest people have nothing on the horned dung beetle, which can tow the equivalent of six double-decker buses, or the golden eagle, with a grip that could burst a car tyre

- Harry Pearson

MITCHELL HOOPER from Midhurst, Ontario, is the world’s strongest man. The mighty Canadian can lift 1,047lb, roughly the weight of a fully grown Arab horse. Phenomenal as he may be, when compared with some of Britain’s animals, the strapping Mr Hooper is the sort of puny specimen who would get sand kicked in his face every time he went to the beach. Because, as anyone who has ever tried to wrestle a shinbone away from a terrier will testify, animals have a power-to-weight ratio that far exceeds that of Mankind. Whether they are as tiny as the box mite or as strapping as a Shire horse, the UK’s most powerful creatures exhibit the kind of strength we normally associate only with superheroes or monster trucks.

The horned dung beetle