In a battle royale for Most Powerful Animal, a red kangaroo might take the martial-arts belt, thanks to a bone-shattering kick that delivers 759 pounds of force. But when comparing these wild creatures, humans must rely on specialized practice and diet to measure up. We've created the following four competitions to find out who truly puts the “king” in the animal kingdom.

Powerful Animal Facts

• 80 degrees a Tasmanian devil can open its jaws to chomp carrion snacks or rivals’ faces. This gives its bite a force 3.6 times its weight.
• 150,000 muscle units in an Asian elephant’s trunk. Its nose has the strength and flexibility to store and spray a gallon of water—or uproot a tree.
• 15 milliseconds—the duration of an African secretary bird’s cobra-killing kick. In sub-Saharan regions, these predators help control reptile populations.

Competitions

Punches and Kicks

The average human gym rat would be McGregored in round one when facing off against a kangaroo. However, a taekwondo master with a black belt could go toe-to-paw with a kangaroo, landing a 136-mile-per-hour kick that delivers 2,300 pounds of force.

Lifting

In 2016, English strongman Eddie Hall set the world record for a deadlift by hoisting 1,102.3 pounds—more than the weight of a concert grand piano. But Asian elephants can shift 770 pounds with their trunks alone. Not bad, humans!

Bite Force

The saltwater crocodile’s horrific bite could easily snap a wild boar’s spinal cord. With a literal ton of force in its jaw, a croc easily out-crunches its closest competitor, the tiger, with a bite six times as strong.

Strength-to-Weight Ratio

Small animals excel here. For example, a mantis shrimp’s punch delivers more than 3,000 times its weight, and a mite shorter than a tenth of an inch can bench-press nearly 1,200 of its fellows.