Another "versus"thread-- how would a lion fare against a tiger? I suspect the lion’s thick mane just might offer some protection advantage over a tiger. What do you think?
I think this may be IMHO material.
The ranges of tigers and lions don’t really overlap, and one (tiger) is a solitary, crepuscular hunter while the other hunts in groups during the day. If they happened to meet, it’s likely they would take little notice of each other.
Well, if I recall correctly, lions and tigers have been successfully mated, so my feeling is that they’re less interested in fighting and more interested in… other activities.
However, that being said, lets assume for some reason they decided to have a scrap.
The tiger is larger and more powerful. The tiger is a solitary hunter that routinely takes down animals larger than itself. Tigers have really big teeth and really sharp claws that would make short work of some pesky old mane, assuming it was even a male lion that was the foe.
I’m putting my $$ on the tiger.
Indeed they have.
Male Lion + Female Tiger = Liger
Male Tiger + Female Lion = Tigon
http://myweb.pacificu.edu/merr8350/index.html (if you’re interested in info on these hybrids)
My money is likewise on the tiger for the reasons mentioned above. In addition male lions seem lazy somehow. Often they rely on the females to hunt and just take their share and otherwise strut around being ‘king’ without doing much. Tigers, being solitary, seem more likely to have their aggressiveness and fighting instincts well honed.
Vegas oddsmakers say it’s the Tiger.
Well, the Lions suck, but I think Mariucci has them headed in the right direction.
The Tigers, on the other hand, are absolutely horrible and show no signs of even minor improvement. So I’m gonna go with the Lions.
oh wait, nevermind.
Male lions sleep about 19 or 20 hours a day, alice. So yeah, they’re lazy. I’d take the tiger as well, despite the disgrace the Detroit Tigers are putting on the name of that fine feline.
The winner is: tiger. (Does the lion have fleas?)
To borrow from Christopher Reeve’s character in “Remains of the Day”:
Gentlemen, you all are rank amateurs…
FROM “INTERSPECIES CONFLICT”
http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/conflict7.html
*Expert opinion is that the modern male lion has no equal in the cat world when it comes to his fighting ability.
Lions evolved as fighters. Among the pride, their primary job is to protect their females from marauding males who would assume control of the pride and kill any cubs. As a result, the male lion spends the great majority of his time in combat situations. Nature has supported the lion in this, with the evolution of a thick heavy mane for added protection and to intimidate.
Moreover, in any fight with a tiger, the lion would have the backing of the entire pride, though it should be noted that pride defence is almost entirely the job of the male lion, and not often assisted by the lionesses.
Tamer Dave Hoover once commented: “Lions are the troublemakers, the most dangerous. When the public sees the cats, they always think the tiger is the worst, because a tiger looks bad. He looks sneaky. But, the male lion of the big cats is the worst. The male lion has a pride. He’s in charge of a group of females until another male lion runs him off. It could be its own son. But the female lion is under domination. She may make the kill. The male lion comes down to eat, and then the females can eat. It doesn’t work that way in humans, but it does work that way in animals.”
*Famous tamer Clyde Beatty made his name for working alone in a cage surrounded by forty wild lions and tigers. He is quoted as saying:
"I can cite a few instances of male tigers whipping male lions, but I can’t think of one such case where the tiger didn’t have a distinct advantage. I also recall a case where a tiger had a marked advantage and lost the fight. The lion seems to have no fear of the tiger.
[continued]
There is a great deal of interaction between the brown bear and the Amur tiger. Tigers and bears are born enemies. Whenever possible a tiger will drive away a bear, or try to kill and eat it. A male tiger will even attack a female brown bear with young. Animal biologists once spotted a big male on a freshly killed brown bear cub. The mother bear and her second cub had escaped by climbing a tree.
The killing of male brown bears is very rare. In such cases, the tiger usually takes the bear by surprise during hibernation.
These two opponents are very wary of a fight. A fully-grown, male brown bear, weighing up to 1500 lb, presents a formidable foe to even the biggest male Amur tiger. Large brown bears even follow tigers and will take over their kills; especially at the end of winter when there is little food around.
More worrisome still is the carnage that might ensue if a SDMB Moderator were to run across a rookie Doper posting in the wrong forum.
Actually they did historically and in one instance they still do - there is a small population of Asiatic Lions left in the Gir Forest in western India. The Caspian Tiger had a range extending as far west as eastern Anatolia and overlapped throughout the Middle East with the Asiatic Lion as late as the 1940’s.
- Tamerlane
Tigers sleep around 15 -18 hours a day so they are just as lazy.
And they aren’t lazy.
Stalking and then chasing after prey and failing over 66% of the time takes a lot of energy, so when they aren’t actively hunting/stalking/fucking/eating, they are most likely snoozing, which helps them to conserve energy.
One on one, I’m putting my money on the Tiger.
However, if the Lion has his pack(?) to back him up, the Tiger is toast.
As far as male lions being lazy, I would agree that their job is pride defense–against both outside males, which would be to keep their own status within the pride; and against other predators like hyenas.
One of the most dramatic scenes I’ve ever watched in a wildlife documentary was when the male lion pride leader came to the defense of the lionesses besieged by a pack of hyenas. The hyenas greatly out numbered the lionesses (hyenas are fairly formidable themselves and will take on lionesses when the numbers are in their favor and drive them off kills) and were seriously threatening them. The lionesses were calling out and the alpha lion responded to their calls from a distance (of a mile? or so) by coming to their rescue and charging into the hyena pack.
The male lion instantly picked out the hyena matriarch (the hyenas’s ring-leader) and ran her down and killed her in like 15 seconds (IIRC). This totally ‘broke the will of the hyena pack’ to anthropomorphize the scene and dispersed the hyenas.
The scene was so dramatic that when I recently described it a friend, he was like: “I’ve seen that documentary”! The title was something like: “Lions and Hyenas: Ancient Enemies” (if someone remembers the title better, let me know—I want to see it again). As my friend said, it was as if the male lion was like “enough is enough and I’m ending this now! I might sleep 20 hours a day, but I’m King of the Jungle for a reason—don’t F*** with me and mine”.
As to whether a lion would take a tiger—I dunno, but it’s not that lions are slouches when it comes to defending their turf.
I also recall a case where a tiger had a marked advantage and lost the fight.
This quote refers to an event which took place on Clyde Beatty’s 20th birthday (in 1929). The “marked advantage” he is referring to is the tiger’s fortuitous posession of a modern (at the time) death ray which would have easily cost the lion his life had the tiger only had an opposable thumb.
It should be noted that, while Amur tigers also lack opposable thumbs they are able dispatch the brown bear without the aid of dated technology.
Thanks Jake–I’m sure that’s the one I remember. It seems like the Amazon reviewers’s agree that it’s a great film, as I recalled.
One to recommend.
Why, the tiger, of course.
They’re grrrrrrreat!
We’re all behind those big stripped cats!
Go get em Tigers!
Razor sharp teeth and mighty big claws!
Go get em Tigers!
There’ll be joy in Tiger town, we’ll sing you songs
as the lions slink back to Africa, where they belong.
We’re all behind those big stipped cats!
Go get em
Bengal tigers!
Go get em tiger!!!
(Sung to the tune of the Detroit Tigers Song)