Martin Jernigan, age 11, of Montgomery, Ala., for his question:

WHICH IS THE BIGGEST MEAT EATING ANIMAL?

The animals that live mostly on meat are called carnivores, and the biggest ones live in the sea. They are the enormous whales. The rorqual, alias the finner whale, is a balleen whale who dines on small items such as krill and herring. He may be 82 feet long and weigh 70 tons, which should make him the largest of all the meat eaters. The toothy, 60 foot sperm whale devours huge helpings of squid and cuttlefish.

On land, the largest carnivores are the big bears, though all of them include some greenery and perhaps fruit in their diets. Some people rate the brown Kodiak bear as the biggest land carnivore. He is 9 feet long and weighs up to 1,600 pounds. The 9 foot polar bear eats more meat but, though 9 feet long, he weighs much less than the big brown bear.