🐻❄️
Polar bear
Ursus maritimus
Carnivores · Vulnerable
vs
🦌
Reindeer
Rangifer tarandus
Mammals · Vulnerable
3 clips name both of them
6.2 million views between them.
Polar bear outweighs Reindeer 3.7× — 372 kg against 101 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 (CC0).
Polar bear
1.45 m
at the shoulder
Human
1.70 m
full standing height
for scale
Reindeer
1.22 m
at the shoulder
Tale of the tape
Body mass
372 kg
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
101 kg
🦌 Reindeer · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.45 m
🐻❄️ Polar bear
1.22 m
🦌 Reindeer
Body length
2.25 m
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
2.21 m
🦌 Reindeer · COMBINE
Top speed
39 km/h
🐻❄️ Polar bear
no figure yet
🦌 Reindeer
Bite force
2,121 N
🐻❄️ Polar bear
no figure yet
🦌 Reindeer
Maximum lifespan
45 yr
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
22 yr
🦌 Reindeer · 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).