🐺
Spotted hyena
Crocuta crocuta
Carnivores · Least concern
vs
🐅
Tiger
Panthera tigris
Carnivores · Endangered
One clip names both of them
5.9 million views between them.
Tiger outweighs Spotted hyena 2.0× — 129 kg against 63 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 — Gabriela Palomo-Munoz (CC BY-NC); others CC0.
Spotted hyena
0.81 m
at the shoulder
Human
1.70 m
full standing height
for scale
Tiger
0.91 m
at the shoulder · measured standing
Tale of the tape
Body mass
63 kg
🐺 Spotted hyena · COMBINE
129 kg
🐅 Tiger · COMBINE
Shoulder height
0.81 m
🐺 Spotted hyena
0.91 m
🐅 Tiger
Body length
1.38 m
🐺 Spotted hyena · COMBINE
2.31 m
🐅 Tiger · COMBINE
Top speed
60 km/h
🐺 Spotted hyena
54 km/h
🐅 Tiger
Bite force
773 N
🐺 Spotted hyena
1,525 N
🐅 Tiger
Maximum lifespan
41 yr
🐺 Spotted hyena · COMBINE
26 yr
🐅 Tiger · 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 Feliformia (suborder), home to 257 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 22 million years ago.
Estimates range from 20 to 25 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).