40 objects
🐋 Size It Up — Animals
Whales, bears, big cats and the insects that should not be that small. Animal sizes are the ones people are most confident about and most wrong about.
What the animals rounds test
Every round shows one object at its true scale in black — the reference — and a second object in white that you must resize until the two match. Nothing tells you the size of the white shape: not a number, not a ruler, not the label. You are working from memory and from the discipline of comparing the two outlines.
The pool for this category runs from 5 mm (Ant) to 30 m ( Blue whale), so the range of mistakes available to you is wide. Difficulty is scored from the true size ratio plus how obscure the object is, and rounds are weighted away from anything you have just seen.
Objects in this category
| Object | Measured | Value | Convention | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ant | length | 5 mm | Nose to tip of abdomen, worker (2.5 mm tall with legs extended) | Natural History Museum, London |
| House fly | length | 7 mm | Nose to wing tip, adult at rest (4 mm tall with wings folded) | Royal Entomological Society |
| Honeybee | length | 1.2 cm | Head to tip of abdomen, worker (8 mm tall with wings folded back) | USDA Agricultural Research Service |
| Bee hummingbird | length | 5.7 cm | Bill tip to tail tip, adult male - the smallest living bird (3.5 cm tall with wings raised) | BirdLife International / IUCN Red List |
| Etruscan shrew | length | 6 cm | Nose to tail tip, adult - the smallest mammal by mass (head and body 3.6 cm) | Guinness World Records / IUCN Red List |
| Praying mantis | length | 8 cm | Head to wing tip, adult female standing with forelegs raised (4 cm tall) | Smithsonian Institution |
| Monarch butterfly | length | 10 cm | Forewing tip to forewing tip with wings open - the horizontal extent in this pose (4.5 cm tall) | US Fish & Wildlife Service |
| Goliath beetle | length | 11 cm | Mandibles to tip of abdomen, large male (5.5 cm tall including legs) | Natural History Museum, London |
| House mouse | length | 17 cm | Nose to tail tip, adult (body 8.5 cm, tail 8.5 cm; 5 cm tall) | Mammal Society / Smithsonian |
| Rabbit | length | 40 cm | Nose to tail, adult sitting (25 cm tall with the ears up) | Mammal Society |
| Megastick | length | 57 cm | Foreleg tip to abdomen tip, 56.7 cm as measured with legs outstretched (body alone 35.7 cm; 7 cm tall on splayed legs) | Guinness World Records / Natural History Museum |
| Cat | length | 75 cm | Nose to tail tip, average adult standing (30 cm tall at the head) | International Cat Care |
| Emperor penguin | height | 1.1 m | Standing height, top of the head to the feet (45 cm from bill to tail) | British Antarctic Survey |
| Great Dane | length | 1.3 m | Nose to tail tip, adult male standing (90 cm tall at the head) | American Kennel Club |
| Sheep | length | 1.3 m | Nose to tail, adult ewe standing (85 cm tall at the head) | National Sheep Association |
| Pig | length | 1.5 m | Snout to tail, adult standing (85 cm at the shoulder) | Smithsonian / AHDB |
| Giant panda | length | 1.6 m | Nose to tail, adult on all fours (85 cm at the shoulder) | Smithsonian National Zoo |
| Red kangaroo | height | 1.6 m | Standing height, top of the ears to the toes (1.5 m from nose to tail on the ground) | Australian Museum |
| Gorilla | height | 1.7 m | Standing height on two legs, top of the head to the feet, adult male (1.1 m from chest to back) | WWF / Smithsonian |
| Cheetah | length | 2.2 m | Nose to tail tip, adult (95 cm tall at the head) | Cheetah Conservation Fund / IUCN Red List |
| Grizzly bear | length | 2.2 m | Nose to tail, adult male on all fours (1.25 m at the shoulder hump) | US National Park Service |
| Cow | length | 2.4 m | Nose to tail, adult Holstein standing (1.5 m at the shoulder) | Holstein UK / AHDB |
| Horse | length | 2.4 m | Nose to tail, adult standing (1.6 m at the withers, 1.7 m at the head) | Equine Science / The Jockey Club |
| Ostrich | height | 2.4 m | Standing height, top of the head to the ground (1.3 m from chest to tail plume) | IUCN Red List / San Diego Zoo |
| Polar bear | length | 2.6 m | Nose to tail, adult male on all fours (1.4 m at the shoulder) | Polar Bears International / IUCN Red List |
| Lion | length | 2.7 m | Nose to tail tip including the tuft, adult male (1.2 m tall at the mane) | IUCN Red List / African Wildlife Foundation |
| Komodo dragon | length | 3 m | Snout to tail tip, adult male (55 cm tall at the shoulder) | Smithsonian / IUCN Red List |
| Tiger | length | 3 m | Nose to tail tip, adult male (1.1 m tall at the head) | IUCN Red List / Smithsonian |
| White rhino | length | 3.8 m | Snout to tail, adult male (1.85 m at the shoulder including the front horn) | IUCN Red List / Save the Rhino |
| Hippopotamus | length | 4.5 m | Snout to tail, adult male (1.55 m tall at the back) | IUCN Red List / San Diego Zoo |
| Giraffe | height | 5.5 m | Standing height, top of the ossicones to the hooves (2.4 m from chest to rump) | Giraffe Conservation Foundation / IUCN Red List |
| Great white shark | length | 6 m | Snout to tip of the upper tail lobe, large adult female (2.0 m from belly to the dorsal fin tip) | IUCN Red List / Oceana |
| Reticulated python | length | 6 m | Snout to tail tip, large adult with the head raised (80 cm from the ground to the top of the raised head) | IUCN Red List / Natural History Museum |
| Saltwater crocodile | length | 6.3 m | Snout to tail tip, large adult male (about 1.0 m tall with the head raised) | IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group |
| African elephant | length | 7 m | Trunk tip to tail tip, adult male (3.3 m at the shoulder) | IUCN Red List / Elephant Voices |
| Orca | length | 8 m | Snout to fluke tip, adult male (2.7 m from belly to the tip of the dorsal fin) | NOAA Fisheries |
| Giant squid | length | 12 m | Fin tip to the longest tentacle tip (1.6 m deep through the body; most measured specimens are 6-10 m) | NOAA Fisheries / Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |
| Whale shark | length | 12 m | Snout to tail tip, large adult (2.5 m from belly to the dorsal fin tip; largest verified 18.8 m) | IUCN Red List / WWF |
| Sperm whale | length | 16 m | Snout to fluke, large adult male (4.5 m deep through the head) | NOAA Fisheries |
| Blue whale | length | 30 m | Snout to fluke notch, large adult female (4.5 m from belly to the top of the back; largest verified 33.6 m) | NOAA Fisheries / IUCN Red List |