🦬
American bison
Bison bison
Mammals · Near threatened
vs
🐺
Grey wolf
Canis lupus
Carnivores · Least concern
29 clips name both of them
27 million views between them.
American bison outweighs Grey wolf 21× — 625 kg against 29.2 kg.
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
Grey wolf
0.73 m
at the shoulder · measured lying down
Tale of the tape
Body mass
625 kg
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
29 kg
🐺 Grey wolf · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.66 m
🦬 American bison
0.73 m
🐺 Grey wolf
Body length
2.9 m
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
1.27 m
🐺 Grey wolf · COMBINE
Top speed
52 km/h
🦬 American bison
62 km/h
🐺 Grey wolf
Bite force
no figure yet
🦬 American bison
593 N
🐺 Grey wolf
Maximum lifespan
33 yr
🦬 American bison · COMBINE
29 yr
🐺 Grey wolf · 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.
Graphic clips stay hidden unless you pick Graphic.
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).