“What Did They Feed This Guinea Pig?”: 50 Oversized Animals That Have No Business Being This Big (New Pics)

In 2019, a cow called Knickers (yes, you read right) took the world by storm. Standing nearly two meters tall, and weighing in at over 3,000 pounds, the Holstein Friesian stood out like a sore thumb among his herd. And because of it, he quickly became a viral online celebrity.

While many people were in awe at the collossal cow's size, some experts cautioned them not to get their knickers in a knot. He isn't a freak of nature, they revealed. Just something we don't see every day.

"Knickers actually isn’t a giant — it’s just that people don’t usually get to see an adult, full-grown Holstein like him," said Susie Coston, national shelter director of Farm Sanctuary. "They’re usually slaughtered right after their second birthdays."

"If a Holstein does reach adulthood, like 7-year-old Knickers, then they’re simply too large to fit through the butchering equipment," reported the Dodo. "That’s the reason Knickers has been spared by his owner, Geoff Pearson, a cattle farmer from Australia."

Dr. M. Todd See, the head of the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University, shared this sentiment.

“The Holstein Fresian is one of the larger cattle breeds and is the largest dairy breed of cattle in size,” he told TIME, adding that the cattle Knickers was pictured with were beef breed or breed crosses that are more moderate in size.

"So from a genetic perspective, I would expect him to be larger and taller," explained the expert. "A simple but perhaps more extreme analogy would be a Great Dane dog as compared to a Yorkshire Terrier.”

Others said at the time that the gentle giant could have grown so big due to something known as acromegaly. It's a condition in which the body produces an excess of growth hormone because of an abnormality in the pituitary gland. And it can happen to animals and humans.