🐃
Cape buffalo
Syncerus caffer
Mammals · Near threatened
vs
🐃
Blue wildebeest
Connochaetes taurinus
Mammals · Least concern
One clip names both of them
6,664 views between them.
Cape buffalo outweighs Blue wildebeest 3.6× — 646 kg against 181 kg.
Tale of the tape
Body mass
646 kg
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
181 kg
🐃 Blue wildebeest · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.35 m
🐃 Cape buffalo
no figure yet
🐃 Blue wildebeest
Body length
2.96 m
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
2.21 m
🐃 Blue wildebeest · COMBINE
Top speed
55 km/h
🐃 Cape buffalo
no figure yet
🐃 Blue wildebeest
Maximum lifespan
30 yr
🐃 Cape buffalo · COMBINE
25 yr
🐃 Blue wildebeest · 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 Bovidae (family), home to 379 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 14 million years ago.
Estimates range from 12 to 17 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).