🦬
American bison
Bison bison
Mammals · Near threatened
vs
🐆
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
Carnivores · Vulnerable
One clip names both of them
1,178 views between them.
American bison outweighs Cheetah 12× — 625 kg against 50.6 kg. Both figures are averages across males and females.
To scale
Grid at 50 cm
50 cm
1 m
1.5 m
2 m
Silhouettes: PhyloPic (CC0).
American bison
1.66 m
at the shoulder
Human
1.70 m
full standing height
for scale
Cheetah
0.80 m
at the shoulder
Tale of the tape
Body mass
625 kg
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
51 kg
🐆 Cheetah · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.66 m
🦬 American bison
0.8 m
🐆 Cheetah
Body length
2.9 m
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
1.49 m
🐆 Cheetah · COMBINE
Top speed
52 km/h
🦬 American bison
104 km/h
🐆 Cheetah
Bite force
no figure yet
🦬 American bison
472 N
🐆 Cheetah
Maximum lifespan
33 yr
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
20 yr
🐆 Cheetah · COMBINE
Bars are sized against the larger of the two figures. Bite force figures come from individual studies and vary a lot between sources.
Animals caught on camera
Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.
Shared ancestry
The closest group they share is Laurasiatheria (superorder), home to 4,193 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 64 million years ago.
Estimates range from 58 to 76 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).