The BFQ is calculated as the regression of the quotient of an animal's bite force in newtons divided by its body mass in kilograms.
[1] The BFQ was first applied by Wroe et al. (2005) in a paper comparing bite forces, body masses and prey size in a range of living and extinct mammalian carnivores, later expanded on by Christiansen & Wroe (2007).
Applying the BFQ normalizes the data allowing for fair comparison between species of different sizes in much the same way as an encephalization quotient normalizes data for brain size to body mass comparisons.
In short, if an animal or species has a high BFQ this indicates that it bites hard for its size after controlling for allometry.
where BF = Bite Force (N), and BM = Body Mass (g) Table sources (unless otherwise stated):[1][4][2][5] In a 2020 paper, the results of an estimation of the BFQ of various canid species separated by sex were published.
BFQ coming from a single specimen for each sex in a given species will be marked with an asterisk.