Speaking as a modestly well-muscled 200-lb martial artist myself, I sure wouldn’t bet on it. The mata leão is probably a reference to Hercules and the Nemean lion, but without Herculean strength I don’t see any way possible of getting and maintaining position long enough to pull it off, even if it is humanly possible to clamp the beast’s neck off. Even with a size advantage, it would be like trying to wrestle an insanely strong and fast child with a neck like a car tire and knives where their fingers and teeth should be. I can’t even hold my housecat down to give it a pill.
Still, if the Mythbusters guys want to give it a try, I’ll sure watch.
I agree - if you have the chance to confound or startle it (I guess by acting in the opposite manner to that typical of a timid prey animal), you could end up living to tell the tale, but once the animal engages physically, survival would be some kind of freakish fluke. (i.e. you’d better hope a huge crocodile comes along and mauls the big cat and scares it away).
Oh, yeah, I’d imagine it’d be a close fight with the man not looking too pretty afterwards, but I dunno, I can’t help but imagine it’d be possible if the man was larger than the cat.
Personally, I’m still waiting for the UFC “Taekwondo Vs. Polar Bear” matchup.
And oh, if we’re going off onto other animals and bringing in weapons, I once saw a video of an African pygmy taking out an elephant single-handely with one thrust from his spear. No joke.
A human in good shape vs. a cat that weighs less than him? Sure, if he’s lucky. But are there any adult lions or tigers that weigh less than a human? I would doubt it.
The basic barehanded lethal striking points on a human being, neglecting ninja black-art Instant Death Kill Points[sup]TM[/sup], are the temples, throat, and back of the neck. You might incapaciate someone with a strike to the solar plexus, kidneys, or bladder, and breaking an arm or leg joint or poking them in the eye or ear may seriously inconvenience them. Most of these just aren’t going to be available on a big cat; as you note, they’re incredibly quick and you just don’t have a chance of locking up a joint fast enough to break or strike at a limb; the organs are better protected under the animal, and given the amount of pure muscle tissue on the torso I doubt you could make a credible strike; nor would a normal person, or even Arnold Schwartzenegger, have much of a chance breaking a cat’s neck. That leaves you back with throat, eyes, and ears, and if you’re in position to do that, you’re going to likely suffer lethal injury yourself.
The thing is (as I’m sure Blake is aware) cats are strictly predators; they can’t forage, and so any injury that might conceivably impact their ability to hunt is something they’ll avoid at all cost. Hence, they seek out the weakest of the herd, nand any creature that stands up to them is likely to cause them to back off and find easier prey…unless, of course, they’re desperate or habituated and know that an unarmed man poses no real threat. Then it’s H. sapiens a tartar for dinner.
Right. If it is a cage death match, I’d bet on a human in good shape and with training (That’s fair as wild cats are also in good shape and have “training”). But I’d also bet the man would need some serious medical attention. I have even *heard *that pound for pound a human (in great shape) is stronger than a cat (We are primates, after all!) I am talking vs a puma, leopard or Jaguar, which we generally outwiegh.
The problem is, as Blake, Stranger On A Train and others have said: generally with big cat vs human, the human is ambushed. Then, really he has little chance. Still, if he shows enough fight and injures the cat, the cat will likely give up, more or less as Stranger On A Train posted.
I remember a story about a naturalist who only had one arm, but still fought off a leopard who jumped him. Can’t find it right now. I think it was in “On the Track of Unknown Animals” by Bernard Heuvelmans, but I wont swear to it.
But note that african natives, *with just a spear *can handily kill a lion.
Without a spear, etc, an ambushed human vs something as large as a lion or tiger is pretty well toast.
There are quite a few anecdotes (some well documented) from the Days of Empire™ of various europeans and locals being attacked by Leopards and managing to either hold the thing off until others came to their aid, or fighting it off, and occasionally managing to e.g. strangle the cat. Almost invariably they were horribly maimed, usually by the Leopard doing that ‘kick with the back legs’ thing that housecats do when wrestling, often resulting in partial evisceration. However the number of people who simply died within seconds of being attacked must be many orders of magnitude greater.
As for really big cats - I’ve never heard of it someone overcoming a lion or tiger, but it has probably happened now and again, on the basis that even million-to-one chances[li] will happen given enough chances.[/li]
But in general I think it’s fair to say that in a cage match between two healthy specimens, with no weapons but a world-class ER just outside the cage, a human has a small chance against a leopard or similar but essentially no chance against a lion/tiger. I’d be willing to place a small bet on the human since I’d get great odds, but not any significant amount. I certainly wouldn’t want to pay for their medical treatment and under no circumstances would I want to be the person in the cage.
You say “just a spear” as if it’s almost inconsequential. A human with a spear is many times more effective than an unarmed human. It gives you a distance attack, a way to hold off an enemy without taking damage, and a sharp piercing or cutting instrument. You might even be able to throw it in a pinch. A spear is pretty much the ideal handheld weapon until you get into firearms.
Although doubtful I began thinking about going for the neck etc…
But there’s just no way. Remember the cat will be going for your neck too…
Wiki:
From the reference (42) above:
Even if you somehow managed to get it’s neck before it got to yours, I don’t think you’d stay behind it for very long… they’re too strong, too flexible. And don’t forget they scratch their neck area with their hind legs… so I dunno, can you maintain a choke hold on a tiger while he’s systematically removing the flesh and er… probably some of your kidneys from your back!? :eek:
Another note is that the accounts I can recall of “African fellow hunts great big animal” usually involve a half-dozen or so little spear-carrying men chasing after their prety.
I’d be a whole lot less skeptical of going hunting for a deadly animal if 5 guys who knew what they were doing were going to have my back.
You did note that the OP pretty much specifies “unarmed” man, right?
Sure, give me an A-10 Warthog and I’ll hunt T-Rex all day, with occasional breaks for fuel and ammo.
Well, that would be down to luck.
I mean, we could posit that you might have a suitable natural tool handy, but really the odds that a stick the right size, shape and strength is handy are pretty low. Same thing with a rock… there’s probably a rock nearby, but 99% of rocks are NOT suitable for this endeavor.
It’s unlikely… I mean, since this is a completely random scenario, it MIGHT take place in the back of a fully loaded SWAT van, and you might HAPPEN to be able to get your hands on an AR-15 before you got turned into Meow Mix, but that’s pretty unlikely too.
I’m saying the pointy stick or conveniently placed rock are out of bounds. I suppose the OP here is Supreme Arbitrer for that question.
Those count as weapons, even if not particularly good ones. If it isn’t part of the normal human body, it’s not allowed. Not sure if growing your hair really long, plaiting it into a rope and strangling the lion with it would be legit in our hypothetical World Lion-Wrestling Entertainment series.
