Polar bear vs Lion
Polar bear (2.5 m) is 1.19× the size of lion (2.1 m).
Lion is 84% of the height of polar bear. The gap between them is 40 cm (1.31 ft).
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polar bear | 2.5 m | 8.2 ft | body length |
| Lion | 2.1 m | 6.89 ft | head-and-body length |
What the scale shows
Polar bear (2.5 m) is 1.19× the size of lion (2.1 m). The gap between them is 40 cm (1.31 ft). Both are animals, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Draw both on one baseline and the smaller one fills 84% of the frame while the larger one runs to the top. The two are close enough that the difference is easy to see side by side.
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What each figure means
The figure for polar bear is its body length (an adult male (2.4–2.6 m)). The figure for lion is its head-and-body length (an adult male (1.7–2.5 m)).
Crossing them
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing polar bear's 2.5 m takes 1.8 seconds and lion's 2.1 m takes 1.5 seconds.
In people: polar bear is 1.5 adults of 1.7 m tall, lion is 1.24. By size polar bear is 14th of the 23 animals on this site and lion is 17th, so 3 places separate them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The polar bear is given as a body length, an adult male (2.4–2.6 m). The lion is given as a head-and-body length, an adult male (1.7–2.5 m). One is a body length and the other is a head-and-body length, so the drawing stands them side by side by convention: everything is stood upright on a single baseline so one scale can hold. That is a fair way to compare overall extent, not a claim that the two are oriented the same way in real life.
Animal sizes vary from one individual to the next, so each figure says which individual or average it describes. Heights are taken at the shoulder or standing; lengths run nose to tail tip unless stated.
Where the pair sits among all the sizes here
Across all 86 things on this site, the polar bear is number 77 from the top and the lion is number 80. No other item falls between them, so in this collection they are direct neighbours.
Because the collection spans 13 mm up to 1,392,700 km, a ratio of 107,130,769,231× from smallest to largest, the position of a pair says a lot: both sit in the lower third of the list.
What the length ratio hides
A length ratio of 1.19× is easy to picture, but area and volume grow faster than length. If two objects had exactly the same shape, the polar bear would have about 1.42× the surface or footprint of the lion, and about 1.69× the volume. For animals volume tracks weight, which is why a long animal is far heavier than its length suggests, and why a small animal cannot simply be a scaled-down copy of a large one.
The drawing above shows length only. The lion is drawn 84% as tall as the polar bear, but the equivalent share of footprint would be only 70.6%, which is why the smaller one looks even slighter than the numbers alone suggest.
Time to cross each one
A sprinter holding about 10 m/s covers the polar bear in 250 milliseconds and the lion in 210 milliseconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 7 milliseconds for the larger and 6 milliseconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 10 milliseconds and 8 milliseconds.
These times assume a straight line and constant speed, which no real crossing has, but they turn a number in metres into something the body understands. At any fixed speed the travel times keep the same 1.19× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The polar bear measures 2.5 m, which is 8.2 ft or 2.7 yards. The lion measures 2.1 m, which is 6.89 ft.
The difference between them is 40 cm (1.31 ft). In metres the smaller one is 2.1 against 2.5, so the 1.19× ratio holds in every unit; only the numbers on the ruler change.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the polar bear or the lion?
The polar bear is bigger. At 2.5 m it is 1.19× the size of the lion, which is 2.1 m.
How many times does the lion fit along the polar bear?
Less than twice: the lion is 84% of the size of the polar bear, so one fits with 40 cm to spare.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
No. The polar bear is a body length (an adult male (2.4–2.6 m)) and the lion is a head-and-body length (an adult male (1.7–2.5 m)), so read the comparison as overall extent.
How does the gap look in people?
Taking an adult of 1.7 m, the polar bear is about 1.5 people tall and the lion is about 1.24. The gap of 40 cm is 0.2 people.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each item has its own page that names the measurement and links to the Wikipedia article it was taken from. Some figures are rounded, and animals vary from one individual to the next, so treat them as representative values rather than records for every case.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.