h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So hey, what *is* the maximum carrying capacity of a Mink-Whale?

Well it all depends on where you find them. There are several cohorts of them drifting around. Some of the smaller individuals are found here on earth in group sizes up to 15-20, whereas 3.000 of them have been sighted floating jsut off Alpha Centauri before the hyperspace driveway was brought through there. Nobody is entirely sure what happened to this population, but the most recent theory suggests that they may have escape to constellation 435 through a black hole, simply inverting it by exceeding the mass of the black hole. Interstellar Mink-whales can grow to be up to the size of small planets, and have on a couple of occasions been mistaken for exactly that by unfortunate hitch-hikers.