I guess it depends on the type and size of the bear
Entered on: March 24, 2004 12:25 AM by The Bone
Discovery channel is sorting out the old who would win in a fight scenario.
Last episode was Great White vs Salt Water Crocodile. The outcome:Croc would have won but ran out of air.
Next week: Lion vs Tiger. I better see the lion coming out on top.
I couldn't find that site we saw but I did read an interesting story where a big cat trainer obtained a 6 year old lion. He got it from a zoo and found that at 6 lions are harder to train. Not that that surprises me. Two years later that lion mauled two of his tigers to death and he considered himself lucky not to have joined them.
At any rate many experts feel that male lions also have the highest threshold for pain of all the big cats. This is probably due to the fact that they have to fight other male over pride leadership and territory. Tigers on the other hand can not afford to be injured as this spells disaster for their survival. In fact, tigers avoid confrontation for this very reason. Lions on the other hand are fearless in this area. One big cat trainer mentioned that tigers are very wary around lions where lions seem to have no fear of the tiger. In confrontation lions are calm and calculating where the tiger is looking for a way out.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that tigers are wimps. It's just their instinct is to shy away from conflict to preserve their ablity to hunt. Lions have no such instinct since their primary job in the pride is to fight. Tigers on the other hand are far better hunters and very explosive because of this. I was reading that tigers have more explosive power than lions do and lions have more endurance which serves the lion in a drawn out fight. The mane around the lions head is to protect his throat and head from injury. Lions will often try to injure each other in other areas of the body where it's the tigers insinct to go for the throat. This is not very effective when fighting a lion and tigers have been suffocated using this tactic and then mauled.
It seem that most trainers that chime in on the subject feel the lion is the better fighter and the tiger is the better hunter. Since they deal with these animals on a daily basis I think they might know wht their talking about. As far as people surveyed goes, most believe that the tiger would prevail but these people usually have ridiculous reasons as to why. I would be interested in watching that Discovery show to see what they have to say on this subject.
That's true, Skippy. A large male bear is the undisputed king of kick ass in the animal kingdom. Siberian Tigers will however hunt and kill bears of equal to lesser weight to themselves. These are usually females which weigh in at around 700lbs., about what a large tiger weighs. They stay clear of the males from this region as they weigh in at around 1400lb. which is a whole lot of bear.
Bone, you're sweet! That is the very site Bert went to when we asked the question who would win in a fight between a lion and a tiger. It's a great site with a ton of info on this topic.
I just wanted to add one more valid point on the subject. The tiger has a longer body, and is usually more powerful in the back legs, having evolved this way for great speed and unmatched leaping power. The lion evolved primarily for fighting, with a larger head and more power in the forequarters. Paradoxically this has made him a poor predator.
Point is many people believe that the superior predator is also the better fighter. This is simply not true as the skill set for the two are actually quite different with the lion coming out on top in the latter event.
Dude, they already had that episode: Elephant vs. Rhino. I can't wait for the Lion vs Tiger though!
Bone, you are sweet. How did you find that? That's the damn site. I think at this point we all have way more knowledge on the subject than your average shmoe. In fact, Roche, who knows quite a bit about cats, actually favored the tiger in this contest before we started to research it, but now it is clear that he has a host of data to support another conclusion. I can't wait to see what the TV show says.
Creeko - This was a contest between carnivores which the hippo and elephant don't qualify. The hippo is indeed a bad mofo but the elephant is the true king of the jungle. When an elephant gets a bug up his ass he'll fuck with all the animals on the savannah including the rhino.
Lions rarely attack elephants but I did see an episode on discover where an elephant was charging two male lions. The lions did not seem too concerned, they just moved out of the way and laid back down. The elephant charged at them multiple times with the same results. The lions did not look intimidated but they new enough to move.
I also read a story about how in South Africa there was a pride of lions that seemed to specialize in taking down large prey. They had several large males that would help in the hunt which is not common. They were successful in bringing down elephants and hippos but they worked together as a team.
Hahahaha, it is true that I have heard more stories of animal attacks from Roche than from every other human being I know combined. Much like with superheroes, Roche is a fount of information for the various power levels of any given animal. German Shepard? Check. Grizzly bear? Check. He knows his shit from Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee.
At the risk of having the ending given away, I must say that I watched the first half of this show this morning before leaving for work and I am largely unimpressed. Instead of talking to various experts or even studying footage of the animals, they devote almost the entire time to building a replica of the animals' skulls, which are of dubious value because a) they are almost identical, b) the skull is only one of many parts that the animal uses in a fight, and c) they're mounting it on a fucking CAR, which has none of the ambulatory properties of the cats. I am perturbed - I don't know what I expected, but I built this up to be much sweeter in my head.
I find it funny that the lion lady is getting verbally abused by the tiger guy. She makes very valid points about the lion being bred to fight where the tiger avoids fights, but they don't ever focus on this in the show - or maybe I should shut up and watch the rest of it.
Regardless, first half: thumbs down. I do not need a computer simulation or an episode of Battle Bots that clearly isn't built from enough data.
Turns out that it depended on the size and type of the bear.
No, actually, the lion did win, which was nice, since the tiger "expert" was such a cocky fuck and the lion "expert" was a mousy lady who couldn't hold her own in an argument. Still, they didn't talk at all about the differences between the front and back leg strength, they just gave a blanket 10% strength advantage to the tiger. Roche? Your commentary, please.
I missed it but hopefully they'll show it again. Too bad they didn't have an expert like Roche to represent the Lion. Now that would have been interesting.
I did watch this turd. I agree that for expert's they didn't seem to know shit, especially the so called tiger expert. I think circus trainers that work with both lion and tiger are actually more qualified to say who would win as they've seen them go at it. The lady was right that all lions do is fight. When they showed footage of lions engaging in a brawl it looked far more serious than the tiger brawls they showed. Tigers simply avoid injury whereas lions get right in there and kick ass.
Bone, that's the perfect name for my animal show, Animal Smackdown, I love it. A chimp can indeed whup the ass of an average man. A 150lb. chimp is 5 times stronger than a human of comparable weight. There are large men that exceed this strength level but a chimp would still be dangerous since they would bite and attack in a fierce manner. I wouldn't want to fuck with one.
The Discovery channel has a bulletin board up for their animal smackdown show. It is hilarious to read the morons who were outraged by the lion winning the fight. Some people mention the lairweb site but the hooligans ignore it. The site is slow-loading but if you're bored and want a laugh, it's pretty good:
Damn Bone, that was disturbing as hell too! As if there was ever any doubt about the outcome.... but how did that zebra keep getting up after those attacks? That's some scary shit...
Here's a sweet "lion vs ..." video with some interesting twists. Easily one of the best nature videos I've ever seen, even though it's shot by an amatuer.
This is a sweet video... I saw it a few months ago and I believe it is on a few 'Best Of 2007' lists for internet videos. Really, you could not dream up a sweeter senario than what is shown here. Quite remarkable.
