The web is abuzz today with news that an English animal sanctuary has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have one of their bullocks, “Chilli”, recognised as Britain’s tallest cow.

The giant Friesian apparently measures a staggering 6ft 6ins (1.98 metres), which raises the question - can we pick Chilli out amongst all the other cows at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary?

The current world record holder for tallest living cow is 6ft 8in Italian “Fiorino”, who was unavailable for comment.

Also see our previous coverage of the World’s Largest (model) Cow.

Thanks to Rob

I wonder what kind of animal left these tracks on these salt flats in South Africa? Are there any animal trackers out there who can identify the creatures responsible?

Part of the National Geographic African Megaflyover Project, this particular image also features some slightly more identifiable tracks, but not left by an animal I suspect…

See our top-rated post of all time - Google Sightseeing Safari - for lots of animals that were still there when the photographs were taken!

Thanks to lepadekor.

In an incredible stroke of luck, this image of Potsdam, Germany was captured at exactly the same moment by both Google Earth and I Can Has Cheezburger!

Ladies and gentlemen I give you, HOVEROCEROS!

(If you haven’t got a clue what we’re on about, hopefully this should help!)

Thanks to sladys and I Can Has Cheezburger.

This small rocky outcrop off the coast of South Africa is Seal Island, which is named for the thousands of Cape Fur Seals that occupy it, and famous for the unique marine drama that unfolds here.

At various times of the year the island’s waters are home to a number of Great White Sharks that very much enjoy dining on the island’s seal population. In fact, the sharks regularly launch themselves vertically out of the water to attack the seals - a behaviour that may be unique to this one place. This is such a common occurrence that you can simply pay $210 US dollars to go and watch the sharks have the seals for breakfast. In mid-air.

This breathtaking behaviour featured in the BBC’s stunning Planet Earth tv series, as well as the Discovery Channel’s Air Jaws programmes. If you haven’t seen one of these shows, make sure you watch this truly incredible clip of the sharks in action on YouTube.

Thanks to Michael.

When I was younger, it was always one of my favourite ‘facts’ that “millions of years ago crocodiles and alligators were, like, hundreds of feet long”. Of course it’s difficult to argue with a statement this naïve, but we do know that the biological order of large reptiles known as Crocodilia has remained pretty much unchanged for a staggering 84 million years.¹

Imagine my joy then, when I learned of a 200 foot-long gator in Florida! Imagine too, how my joy turned so quickly to disappointment when I saw the low-resolution shots that cover the Jungle Adventures alligator farm. They’re so poor that I can’t even spot a 200 foot-long alligator!

This got me thinking however… “What was the largest alligator in the world before this elusive specimen?” The answer of course, is the world’s second largest gator! What a beaut, eh?

Miraculously also in Florida, at Jungleland, this 126 foot-long monster has an evil glint in its eyes, and is so big it could easily eat cars like biscuits! Wait a minute… it IS eating a car! Yes, it’s chowing down on a safari jeep like it was a [Graham Cracker/Tim Tam/Hob-Nob]!²

All of which makes me rather glad that crocs and gators aren’t any bigger than they already are.

Thanks to Kurt Leucht and Felippo. Read more about the world’s largest gators at Roadside America.

Baa baa, baa! Cluck cluck, moo? Moo. Moo! Mooooo! Oink! Oink! Oink!

(Many thanks to my 18-month-old son, Mylo, for writing today’s post.)

Aaiieeeee! Run for the hills! There’s a Monster Dog on the loose!

Apparently our submitter found this mega-pooch while she was looking at real estate listings in the area - but says that she’s no longer sure if she wants to live in an area that’s terrorized by giant dogs.

However, here at GSS, we reckon a guard dog of that size would be a pretty effective burglar deterrent…

Thanks to Christina Ross.

As 2007 draws to a close we present our choices for the best posts of the year.

Best Mystery

There were numerous contenders for the most confusing or bizarre images, but our pick is the Mystery Plane Outline, as even the generally accepted answer, that these are small rocks arranged in the shape of a plane, still begs the question: “But why bother?”.

Best personal project

In February we were impressed with one man’s attempt to single-handedly recreate a cruise ship in his front drive.

Lamest World Record

The Largest Wooden ship in the world from April easily wins this prize, due to having a less-than-exciting title and the fact that the specially built ship has never even been in the water!

A special mention also goes to the German towns squabbling over who has the most unintentionally leaning building.

Our Brains Hurt Award

Getting our heads around the Island and Lake recursion from September’s Island Week 2 was almost too much, but I think we get it now…

Best Smallest Thing

We loved the idea of the world’s smallest parks from January, but the world’s smallest municipal park was just too darn small to see from satellite! Fortunately, Google now have a street view shot of it.

Best World’s Most Enlarged Thing

In the last year we’ve featured many, many sights that claim to be the “World’s largest something” but our pick for the Best Largest something is the World’s largest fingerprint.

Best Imagery

Undoubtedly the most amazing images to be found in Google Earth are the African Megaflyover project aerial shots, and the best of these images were highlighted in November’s Google Sightseeing Safari.

Best Blurry Pictures

Some of the aerial images in Google Earth are amazingly high resolution, but not high enough for our tour of miniature parks across the globe, which ended up as a list of blurry blobs that sort-of look like the Eiffel tower.

Best Landart

The ancient Incan geoglyph of a cat is fantastic, and much more intersting and attractive than kfc’s logo stunt.

Most Ignored Warning

A few days after we posted this year’s April fools joke: “Live Satellite Images in Google Earth” we updated the entry with a banner warning users that it was a prank and there are no live images to be seen. Did anyone read that? Of course not! We still get a new message almost every week from someone who fell for the joke and wants to know where the live images are.

Most In-Depth Post

For a long time it had no decent imagery, so during Island Week this year we really went to town on our Easter Island post, and managed to condense 2,000 years of history into a mere 600 words.

Best Large Type

The rooftop message “Welcome to Cleveland” isn’t very interesting at first glance, until you realise that the message is over 400 miles away in Milwaukee!

So that’s our picks of the year, but with over 250 entries in 2007, what were your favourites?

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2008 - see you all next year!