🐃
Cape buffalo
Syncerus caffer
Mammals · Near threatened
vs
🦏
White rhinoceros
Ceratotherium simum
Mammals · Near threatened
4 clips name both of them
16 million views between them.
White rhinoceros outweighs Cape buffalo 3.5× — 2,230 kg against 646 kg.
To scale
Grid at 50 cm
50 cm
1 m
1.5 m
2 m
Silhouettes: PhyloPic — Jan A. Venter, Herbert H. T. Prins, David A. Balfour & Rob Slotow (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) (CC BY); others CC0.
Cape buffalo
1.35 m
at the shoulder
Human
1.70 m
full standing height
for scale
White rhinoceros
1.78 m
at the shoulder
Tale of the tape
Body mass
646 kg
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
2,230 kg
🦏 White rhinoceros · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.35 m
🐃 Cape buffalo
1.78 m
🦏 White rhinoceros
Body length
2.96 m
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
3.39 m
🦏 White rhinoceros · COMBINE
Top speed
55 km/h
🐃 Cape buffalo
24 km/h
🦏 White rhinoceros
Maximum lifespan
30 yr
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
50 yr
🦏 White rhinoceros · COMBINE
Bars are sized against the larger of the two figures.
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 61 million years ago.
Estimates range from 53 to 69 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).