113 responses · Open since 2021
Could you beat it in a fight?
Fifteen animals, two questions. Which ones would you beat with your bare hands, and which ones would you beat with a knife.
Fill out the fight form →Each person ticked every animal they think they would beat, once bare handed and once holding a bowie knife. Percentages are the share of people who ticked that animal. New responses get folded in when the page is rebuilt.
The headlines
Unarmed
4
animals the median person thinks they beat bare handed
With a knife
7
animals the median person thinks they beat once armed
Biggest knife bump
+47
points for the large dog, 30% to 77%
Ticked everything
1
person would fight every animal unarmed, lion and grizzly included
Nearly everyone takes the house cat, rat, medium sized dog and goose. After that it falls off a cliff.
Grizzly bear, Gorilla, Elephant and Lion stay under 15% even with a knife. Still, 5 people would fight a grizzly bear, 4 people would fight a gorilla, 4 people would fight a elephant, 2 people would fight a lion with nothing but their hands. 1 person ticked fewer animals with a knife than without, which is a choice.
Animal by animal
Ranked by the unarmed vote. The pale bar is bare hands, the bright bar is with the knife.
House cat
Rat
Medium sized dog
Goose
Large dog
Eagle
Kangaroo
Chimpanzee
King cobra
Wolf
Crocodile
Grizzly bear
Gorilla
Elephant
Lion
Unarmed With a knife
Split by gender
Share of each group who think they would win. 54 men and 52 women answered. The 7 who picked something else or preferred not to say are in the overall numbers above but not in this split.
| Unarmed | Knife | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Men | Women | |
| House cat | 89% | 77% | 93% | 81% |
| Rat | 89% | 71% | 91% | 79% |
| Medium sized dog | 89% | 58% | 93% | 81% |
| Goose | 80% | 67% | 89% | 81% |
| Large dog | 35% | 19% | 91% | 60% |
| Eagle | 37% | 15% | 74% | 42% |
| Kangaroo | 20% | 29% | 57% | 29% |
| Chimpanzee | 17% | 17% | 59% | 35% |
| King cobra | 17% | 13% | 31% | 31% |
| Wolf | 17% | 6% | 56% | 15% |
| Crocodile | 15% | 8% | 39% | 21% |
| Grizzly bear | 2% | 8% | 4% | 17% |
| Gorilla | 2% | 6% | 7% | 19% |
| Elephant | 0% | 8% | 11% | 15% |
| Lion | 2% | 2% | 4% | 10% |
About the numbers. This is a poll about confidence, not a prediction. Nobody was harmed and no animal was consulted. Only the counts live in this site; the individual responses never left the sheet.