Polar Bear vs Hippo: Why the Bear Gives Up Too Much Size and Weight

A polar bear versus a hippo. Who wins? Honestly, this might be one of the worst possible animals for a polar bear to fight, because against a fully grown male hippo the bear is giving up way too much size and weight.

That's really saying something, because polar bears are terrifying.

The polar bear is the largest living land carnivore

A big adult male polar bear can stand more than 10 feet tall. It has enormous claws, along with jaws designed to grab, hold, and tear apart prey. Polar bears are the largest living land carnivores. They're strong enough to hunt seals or even walruses, prey that can weigh anywhere from hundreds of pounds up to multiple tons.

A male hippo can weigh nearly three times as much as the bear

Now put that polar bear in front of a fully grown male hippo, and suddenly the bear doesn't look nearly as big anymore. A male hippo can weigh 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, sometimes even more. So we're talking about an animal that can weigh nearly three times as much as the bear.

Hippos aren't just big, either. They've got incredibly thick skin, enormous neck and jaw muscles, and gigantic canine teeth that can grow well over a foot long. One good bite is all it's going to take to cause some serious damage.

The polar bear's agility runs into the hippo's thick hide

The polar bear is more agile, so it can move around the hippo, attack from different angles, and use its claws to try and injure it. But where exactly is it supposed to attack? The hippo has that super thick hide. Lions and crocodiles aren't even able to seriously injure it. So what's a polar bear going to do?

The polar bear might be one of the most powerful predators alive, but it's just giving up way too much size and weight here. Against the hippo, that's just not going to work.

Which animal do you think would come out on top in this matchup?