Feats like those of the saúva, capable of lifting 14 times its own weight and covering 1 kilometer per day – the equivalent, for a human being, of lifting 1 ton and going from São Paulo to Buenos Aires in a single day -, are only possible in small-sized animals. In these dimensions, body mass becomes negligible next to muscle strength. This is not the case with an elephant, for example, which has to carry a proportionately heavier body, being unable to lift its own weight. This happens because, as the body grows, weight grows more than muscle strength. In addition, the ant has a body well adapted for carrying loads, with an extremely light skeleton and six legs on which it can distribute the weight of the load.
