I'm new to programming and Perl so I'm sorry if this is something easy. I'm running into issues trying to get the maximum value from multiple lines in a file. Inside while loop I receive max each time, outside the while loop I only receive the last value. I know I could sort these easily with the sort command but my end goal is to use this code alongside a work specific command instead of a file. The numbers will change depending on the users input so I would like to store them in an array or hash, look for one value specifically or else grab the line with the maximum values.

list:

455 DOG

1074 BIRD

605 CAT

850 FISH

my $animals = "/home/usr/workspace/list";
my %animals_hash;

sub main {
my @newlines;
unless(open(INPUT, $animals)) {
        die "\nCannot open $animals\n";
    }

    while(my $line = <INPUT>) {
        chomp $line;
    
    if ($line =~ /DUCK/) {
        print "Send to Building XX";
        exit;
    }
    
    else {
        my ($sums, $animal) = split /\s+/, $line;
        
        %animals_hash = (
            $animal => $sums,
        );        
    }
   }

    my @keylist = keys %animals_hash;
    my $max_key = pop @keylist;

        foreach (@keylist) {
            $max_key = $_ if $animals_hash{$_} > $animals_hash{$max_ke
+y};
            }    

    print $max_key. " :: " . $animals_hash{$max_key} . "\n";
    print Dumper(%animals_hash);

close INPUT;

}

main();
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Current Output: FISH :: 850

$VAR1 = 'FISH';

$VAR2 = '850';