Baffling.
Popping in to a nondescript village boozer near Northampton, we chanced upon the pub quiz. Eventually, the final question rang out; "What is the largest predator in the world?".

You're thinking Blue Whale, right*? Wrong. Apparently, it's a badger.


* Or your mum.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 10 Feb 2014, 23:09, 34 replies)

Are you sure the question wasn't "What is the largest predator in the Wirral?"?
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 10 Feb 2014, 23:38, closed)

This reply should win QOTW

( Fork Has lost his bash virginity!, Mon 10 Feb 2014, 23:46, closed)

^

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 9:44, closed)

Purple Aki.
AICMFP.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:51, closed)

Blue whales are not predators.
Furthermore, they've never been seen on the Wirral. Neither has Northampton.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 0:15, closed)

^this^
At a guess, I'm going to go with great white shark
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:01, closed)

Orca? Naah!
Probably Sperm whale
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:02, closed)

Just googled*
The google answer IS Blue whale. However, as they eat Krill just by swimming through the shoals(?) I would doubt their predatory credentials.

*Yeah, like googling is any guarantee of veracity.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:07, closed)

BULLSHIT is it the Blue Whale.
Sperm Whale. Has to be.
Because it actually fucking predates.
Grazing on krill is just grazing. It's like calling a sheep a hunter for moving from one bit of grass to the next bit.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:49, closed)

It does involve stalking

( wakeupandsmellthebacon, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 8:06, closed)

Go outside and think about what you've done.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 8:15, closed)

ooof

(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Wed 12 Feb 2014, 16:01, closed)

^This.

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:44, closed)

Blue whale eats plankton so it's technically a predator. Largest predator of vertebrates must be the great white.
(Venger Life by misadventure, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:48, closed)

Nope. Killer Whale.
Invertebrates would be Sperm Whale.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 1:50, closed)

Oh ok
I always thought the great white was bigger. Maybe that's down to watching Jaws 2 as a child.
(Venger Life by misadventure, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:02, closed)

:D

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:04, closed)

But I guess the sperm whale eats "proper" animals rather than little krill and that. So yeah.
(Venger Life by misadventure, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:08, closed)

But...
The blue whale eats invertebrates and is much bigger than the sperm whale. Although the sperm whale is theorised to hunt giant squid etc. Or am I missing something.
(Venger Life by misadventure, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:04, closed)

Do cows 'predate' grass?
Yeah the blue whale eats krill, which ARE animal, but they don't actively try to avoid being eaten because they're really just animal plankton, so the term predation shouldn't really apply.
do you think I could use this as a reasonable 'not guilty' plea for cannibalising my fat neighbours? only i'm really hungry.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:09, closed)

Yeah go for it
And that massive single-organism fungus in North America (whatever it's called, I can't remember) predates whatever it eats (haven't the foggiest) so that one's the winner.
(Venger Life by misadventure, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:16, closed)

Yeah, that's what I mean..
Fungi just break down decomposing stuff, plankton feeders just graze whatever they're swimming through. Turtles will even mistake the remains of a weather balloon for a jellyfish, and they're supposed to be smart enough to kung-fu stuff.
:D
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 2:53, closed)

You don't run a pub in the Midlands, by any chance?
The question-master went through a similar line of reasoning when queried. Blue Whales were dismissed as filter-feeders, whereupon bull Sperm Whales were suggested, and similarly discounted as "actually he meant land predators". Polar bears were discounted due to the fact that they occasionally lick lichen from rocks (?), which means they're not strictly 100% predatory. All the way down to badgers.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 8:14, closed)

Or there could be a badger you've not been told about
that's bigger than a polar bear.
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Tue 11 Feb 2014, 9:18, closed)

I reckon a giant badger could take a polar bear. We should scale down - set a regular badger against a koala* - and find out.

* I know.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 10:01, closed)

That'd be the bear minimum.

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Tue 11 Feb 2014, 13:49, closed)

the killer whale is pretty much the only creature that hunts and eats great whites

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 12:23, closed)

spermlols

( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 10:38, closed)

I reckon it was the one from the first movie. Arnie is 6'2 and he was still bigger

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 3:34, closed)

Good call.
You get the points, The LOVELY KNOWLEDGABLE Qumquat.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 11 Feb 2014, 4:28, closed)

I once got into a similar argument with a pub quiz host

The question: what was the first satellite of the Earth?
My answer: The Moon
Their answer: Sputnik

We ended up missing the prize by 1 point. Read a fucking dictionary, fuckwit!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 10:27, closed)

Please tell me you headbutted him right in the nose?
These pub quiz organisers don't know shit.

Why doesn't it occur to them that since they didn't pay attention to teacher, and because subsequently they are now serving alcoholic beverages for minimum wage, that maybe they ought to shut the fuck up when corrected by someone better than them?
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 11:04, closed)

When fully inflated a badger can hold all the water in an olympic sized swimming pool.

( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 10:39, closed)

You pleb.
I have a 44,000ltr, salt-water badger.
*smugs*
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 11 Feb 2014, 10:49, closed)