🦁
Lion
Panthera leo
Carnivores · Vulnerable
vs
🦏
White rhinoceros
Ceratotherium simum
Mammals · Near threatened
17 clips name both of them
18 million views between them.
White rhinoceros outweighs Lion 15× — 2,230 kg against 149 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 — Lukasiniho (CC BY-NC-SA); others CC0.
Lion
1.15 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
149 kg
🦁 Lion · COMBINE
2,230 kg
🦏 White rhinoceros · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.15 m
🦁 Lion
1.78 m
🦏 White rhinoceros
Body length
2.17 m
🦁 Lion · COMBINE
3.39 m
🦏 White rhinoceros · COMBINE
Top speed
55 km/h
🦁 Lion
24 km/h
🦏 White rhinoceros
Bite force
1,768 N
🦁 Lion
no figure yet
🦏 White rhinoceros
Maximum lifespan
30 yr
🦁 Lion · COMBINE
50 yr
🦏 White rhinoceros · 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).