🐻❄️
Polar bear
Ursus maritimus
Carnivores · Vulnerable
vs
🦭
Walrus
Odobenus rosmarus
Carnivores · Vulnerable
5 clips name both of them
131 million views between them.
Walrus outweighs Polar bear 2.3× — 846 kg against 372 kg. Both figures are averages across males and females.
Tale of the tape
Body mass
372 kg
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
846 kg
🦭 Walrus · COMBINE
Shoulder height
1.45 m
🐻❄️ Polar bear
no figure yet
🦭 Walrus
Body length
2.25 m
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
3.22 m
🦭 Walrus · COMBINE
Top speed
39 km/h
🐻❄️ Polar bear
no figure yet
🦭 Walrus
Bite force
2,121 N
🐻❄️ Polar bear
no figure yet
🦭 Walrus
Maximum lifespan
45 yr
🐻❄️ Polar bear · COMBINE
40 yr
🦭 Walrus · 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 Caniformia (suborder), home to 469 species.
They last shared an ancestor about 28 million years ago.
Estimates range from 24 to 34 million years; the figure above is the middle estimate.
About this estimate
Dates from Upham, Esselstyn & Jetz 2019, PLoS Biology 17:e3000494 (CC0).