Uh, I could be wrong but it seems to me a silverback weighs more like 800 lbs. Any vet or biologist type people here who know for sure?
I googled around, and got weights for the gorilla of 400-600lbs, with weights for the grizzly of 330-1150lbs. Females of each species being smaller than the noted weights.
If their weights are matched, this is an interesting discussion. Stack a half ton grizzly against a quarter ton gorilla, it’s no fight at all.
Um…when was the last time you saw a vegitarian animal with four inch incisors? Gorillas are not vegitarian, it’s just that they tend to eat a more vegitarian diet because they’re lazy bastards and it’s simpler. But those teeth and jaws are just as formidable to those of a bear.
As for reach, a gorilla’s arms are incredibly long. As long as their entire body, for the most part, so I think that pretty much undoes any of the bear’s reach benefit. Still, bears have claws and gorilla’s don’t, so there’s one benefit. Still, from the term “bear hug,” and from what little I’ve seen from shows and movies, bears tend to get in close when attacking something that’s upright. A chimpanzee tends to be as strong as, if not stronger than most adult humans, so I’m guessing a full grown gorilla is strong enough to match a bear in strength.
If the gorilla gets on the bear’s back, I think the gorilla could win. On a head to head bought, it’s anybody’s guess in my mind.
But I like gorillas better, so I say they win 
I believe you are mistaken, Elvis. Chimps have been observed killing and eating meat (monkeys, the little chattering bastards!), but I don’t believe that gorillas ever have. Having the flashy teeth doesn’t necessarily mean much, especially when the rest of 'em are chompers.
Bears.
Yay. What a topic to come out of lurking for.
It was Cecile who stated that a Gorilla could heft 1,800 pounds and not think twice about it.
In its search for the strongest animal, Animal Planet found the average Gorilla could likely lift ten times its own body weight.
That really is enough raw strength to literally toss around a bear.
Plus the 10 feet arm span and advantage of opposible thumbs give the Gorilla the potential to win.
But in the wild it simply wouldn’t, Gorillas are passive by nature, not nearly as aggressive as Bears.
In a real life situation that would be the deciding point of the battle.
Now if you meant a human mind in each of the animals and fought that way, who knows. It would be a great battle.
Thanks, now if Bush gets re-elected I’ll have some hope to hold on to.
Grind the bear’s claws down to the same size/sharpness as the gorilla’s finger nails, match weights, and it would be interesting. But then the bear couldn’t fight like a bear, so that wouldn’t be fair afterall. I’ve read that gorillas will actually throw big swats at leopards in the wild; so seeing those two bruisers swinging at each other would be cool. Of course it would turn into some kind of clinch and bite contest soon after… I’d give the edge to the bear there.
Bears seem pretty shaggy with a lot of rolly fat under the skin, like you could bite them and just get a big mouth full of loose blubber and hair; not much structural damage. The apes look pretty “tight” skin-wise; not much padding - Smokey’
ll probably be tearing straight into muscle and/or bone if he bite King Kong. Also the apes appear to have more biting targets, being so broad through the shoulders and neck. Bears don’t seem to be as vulnerable or open to bites; no shoulders, long cylindrical torso, and giant toothy/boney heads. They look like huge pez dispensers with two big clubs hanging off the sides.
I like gorillas for being built so ridiculously solid and powerful for their peaceful family lifestyle, but bears have an even more impressive build and probably see more violence in their lives, so my money’s on the bear.
The winner (my money’s on the grizzly, BTW) would then have to take on the other semifinal winner:
Polar bear vs Tiger
A classic matchup on brawn and strength (polar bears can hit 1800 lbs) vs. quickness and agility.
Now THAT’s a pay-per-view event waiting to happen!
A tiger would get crused by a bear. Seriously, its been done before many times. Big cats skeletal systems aren’t that dense, one blow from a massively strong and dense creature like a Gorilla/Grizzly and the skull is shattered. There is this whole site about that, I’m kicking myself for not putting it in my favorites.
I found the site .
The whole thing is an interesting read, but it’s the “ultimate carnivore” page that deals with big cats vs bears.
I’d go with the bear again.
In Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jim Corbett describes a case where he saw a Himalayan bear stalk a tiger on a kill, attack, drive the tiger away, and claim the kill. This is a very impressive feat, by a bear that is nowhere near as big as a grizzly or a polar bear.
I saw a monkey fight a dog on some REAL TV or some shit. the Monkey was even toying with the dog, pulling its tail and bouncing away before the dog could retaliate. since gorillas are similar to chimps and dogs are similar to bears we can logically conclude that the gorilla would win.
anyways, I think it all depends on the environment, if you just dump both in a pit then the grizlly would win. If you have a spacious arena, with some obstacles or objects lying around then the gorilla would win. Seriously, they’re pretty smart. Have you ever heard of Koko?
Have you ever heard of Ben?
I’ve got to be more careful when I go out for my morning walk.
You may certainly conclude that the gorilla would win based on the TV snippet or even just your opinion, however:
- You are officially banned from using the phrase: “gorillas are similar to chimps and dogs are similar to bears” as a factual argument. I don’t even know where to begin listing everything wrong with that idea…
- Capital punishment is currently being considered for daring to add the word “logically” to the end of the quoted sentence. Logic is not refered to in any way in that argument. Carry on…
In California in the 1800’s it was not unknown for people to set up fights between Grizzly bears and bulls.
Brandus, I just wanted to ask if you’re sure it was actually a monkey, and not, say, a chimp. Because the way you worded your statement doesn’t quite make sense.
Fortunately this is IMHO so I didn’t need cites, or to accurately defend my statements, or even worry about spelling, so…I don’t even need to try! ha-ha! I’m free…
What a way to make friends.
See, we already had an argument about whether a grizzly bear could beat ten monkeys armed (and trained) with swords. I guess we decided on the grizzly bear, and it has advanced in the tournement. So, what does the winner of this bout face?
And now I come to find out that the thread I was referring to was lost in the great board fire.