How many emperor penguins would it take to beat a polar bear in a fight?

Question

I have done a bit of research - a typical polar bear weighs 500 kilos. A typical emperor penguin weighs 34 kilos. Therefore about 15 penguins have the same mass as a polar bear. I reckon a polar bear could easily beat 15 but how many would it need. PLEASE NOTE - I AM FULLY AWARE THAT THEY LIVE AT DIFFERENT POLES - THIS IS PURELY HYPOTHETICAL FOLLOWING AN OFFICE DISCUSSION. ALSO NOTE - I DO NOT PLAN TO ATTEMPT THIS IN REAL LIFE. Thanks, Ben

Answer 1

Having given this a bit of thought I have come to the conclusion that although the penguins are at a disadvantage in most departments (strength, landspeed, number of huge paws etc), they do have one card to play.
Emperor penguins can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes, wheras the lubberdly polar bear can manage no more than a faintly embarrassing 2 minutes. That's rubbish!
Therefore, the penguin strategem has to involve drowning the bear by trapping him underwater.
The first (and bravest) penguin must approach the bear, possibly effecting some debilitating condition such as a wonky flipper or nasty cough. Alternatively, he could dress up as a lady polar bear (fur hat, lip gloss, fake teats) and walk past the target whistling nonchalantly.
When he has secured the polar bear's attention he then dives into the sea via a specially constructed hole in the ice (the work of no more than ten penguins digging for one hour) and heads down to a depth of 250 metres and begins to hold his breath.
The polar bear will follow the lure through the hole into the freezing waters. As soon as he does this, the ten penguin engineers (or pengineers if you will) who had dug the initial ice hole come out from their hiding place behind a rock and furiously begin filling the hole in again.
Meanwhile, below the surface, the polar bear will just about be realising that he has been duped and will try to get out of the water through the hole. It is at this point that the first penguin, who has been hiding at the bottom of the sea, launches himself torpedo-like at the bear's ****. When his sharp beak punctures the bear's pelt, the bear will let out an involuntary roar of pain and surprise before inadvertantly breathing in and getting water up his nose. On turning to face his assailant, the bear will not be able to see anything, as the penguin will still have a tight grip on his bottom-fur. The bear will continue to spin around in a futile search for his attacker, using more and more energy and getting increasingly dizzy.
Now weakened and disoriented, the polar bear will have no chance of finding his way out before the pengineers finish their work. His death will be mercifully quick.
The penguin stuck underwater then has to simply swim for five minutes to another hole in the ice and climb out to join his mates for a lovely celebratory fish supper.

In conclusion then, one polar bear can be bested by eleven emperor penguins.

Answer 2

Given the strength of the polar bear, I would guess about 10 times the bear's mass in order to just overwhelm the beast. So, roughly 150 penguins.

Answer 3

Fantastic question, I just love the image of all these penguins ganging up on the polar bear. In reality I think they would all try to run away. So lets say 300, that should be enough to stampede the poor polar bear.

Answer 4

I am just laughing at the image in my head of these penguins and the polar bear fighting, but I think it would take a heck of a lot of penguins. Those paws [on the polar bear, not the penguin :-)] are awesome weapons.

Answer 5

No amount. They'd be too tired after travelling half way round the world to get from the antarctic to the arctic.

That, and they're only effective killing machines against little fish.

I suppose you could take into account the number of the emperor penguins the polar bear could manage to eat before it choked, although their preferred snack is seals.

Answer 6

Well, one thing about polar bears is that they are highly aggressive. A single swat of its paw can take out 20 penguins, so you would need 4 times of your initial amount (about 60) to take out a single polar bear!!!

Answer 7

Penquins will have to get the bear into the water and take it in turns to keep him submerged.

Or

Get the bear to stand under a cliff while the penguins jump on him from the top.

Answer 8

They cannot beat polar bear.. no matter what is thier number... reason... they dont have mind to think about getting united & attacking together in defense...
They are goverened by warning mechanism which tells them to run away from threats & not that together they can be a mightier force... Thats why human brain is considered the biggest weapon,....

Answer 9

Penguins have a problem getting the silver paper off first

Answer 10

Me an Big Olaf staged this fight last Summer in Koenisggeegggeggeggegegrerggegeg in Sweden, his home-town. When we'd let six emporer pingus in, one of them went for the bears eyes! It was all over soon after... Very messy, and rather sad.