Munch:
The word is faze, Munch. Faze.
And if we’re opening the floor to pinnipeds, the elephant seal has it all over the walrus. They’re huge, and fast even on land! I watched one almost crush Marlon Perkins on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. And Marlon could be vicious when cornered.
Does anyone know why gorillas are so monstrously strong when they have no natural predators? My best guess is brachiation, but they don’t spend much time in trees so that doesn’t sound right to me.
The Grizzly would win… definitely.
what? Wha-at?!
I want to respond to Fivers post because it raises an interesting question.
His question was:
“Why are gorillas so monstrously strong when they have no natural predators?”
I recently saw a documentary about Mandrill Apes that live in the highly remote forests of Congo. These vast forests are so remote (and Congo is so war-torn) that this area is one the last great unexplored areas of the world.
Although the apes live mainly in the forests, every so often they cross the plains. When they do this they all herd together, thousands of them.
Why do they do this?
They do it for the same reason sheep or birds herd together - for safety.
But they have no natural predator, so what do they need to be safe from?
The only possible answer is Man.
Scientists currently believe that the Congo is the most likely place from which humanity sprang. Man left the forests however and took to the plains.
So we havent been in the vicinity of the Mandrills for many thousands of years.
And, before the camera crew turned up, these Mandrills hadn’t seen many humans for that same period of time.
Yet still they herd.
We are still in their collective memory.
We must have been pretty frightening.
Um, did I mention that saltwater crocs can fight on land? And that they can weigh nearly a ton and a half (2600 pounds)? And that they have body armor? And that a large male lion weighs in at 400 pounds?
Can you say “croc chow?” The lion wouldn’t stand an ice cube’s chance in hell. 
Fair point you make ogre but nothing on earth is as fast as big cat.
In the speed v strength argument gimme speed every time.
As long as its matched with sufficient strength to do the job - which a lion has.
Think Ill still go with the lion in the lion v croc debate.
If we’re talking lion vs croc - definitely the croc.
As for speed, lions are fast, but not that fast. They typically catch fast prey, such as gazelle, by being able to accelerate faster - that is, they can reach their “max” speed of around 35mph faster than the gazelle can; if they don’t catch the gazelle very quickly, the gazelle has time to reach its top speed, which is around 50 mph. The lion tries to put the odds in its favor by sneaking up on the gazelle, but if the gazelle spots the lion at any appreciable distance, Ms. (or Mr.) Lion has little chance of catching it. By the way, you can check out the top 10 fastest land critters here - note that there’s only one cat in the list, and it ain’t the lion.
And you think lions are tough? Get a load of this (from this site):
Thanks for the link, Darwin’s Finch. I’m not totally convinced of the veracity of the size reports there, although it’s possible. Eight meters?! What a frickin’ beast! Although if it is true, what a damn shame that they were routinely killed.
ok, some other matches for consideration, with my personal winner in brackets:
lion v tiger (close but lion)
rhino v hippo (rhino - the horn)
grizzly v buffalo (buffalo - it would flatten the bear)
kangaroo v horse (kangaroo - roos are really tough)
Australian Fierce snake v Polar Bear (a draw, they would both kill each other)
Komodo Dragon v saltwater croc (close but I think the dragon - it has a poisonous bite)
Hate to disagree with you again, but here goes:
Depending on what species of tiger you consider, they can outweigh a large male lion by as much as 400 pounds. Siberian Tigers are the largest cats in the world. I can’t think of a single advantage a lion would have over a tiger.
No idea about the next three matchups.
The last one. Komodo against saltie. I’m afraid the Komodo would be croc chow, too. See, Komodo dragons don’t have a poisonous bite per se, they have a mouth in which potentially poisonous bacteria live. I don’t know how toxic it’d be to the saltie. Also, Komodo dragon only get to be 10 feet long, While salties get twice that long. In terms of body mass alone, Komodos are nowhere near big enough. The largest verified specimen weighed 133 kg (293 pounds), and the average is closer to 65 kg (143 pounds.) Did I mention that salties can weigh up to 2600 pounds? I believe I did. Game over, big time.
Re croc v. komodo, one more thing.
Komodos don’t have large teeth, so even if salties are susceptible to their bacterial toxin, there’s no guarantee they could even bite through the croc’ skin. On the other hand, croc teeth are big. Real big.
Yeah but Komodos have a whiplash tail as well as a poisonous bite and they are fast. Boy, are they fast, a croc doesn’t have anywhere near the speed of a komodo. They can run faster than a man.
And they are man-eaters and mean with it.
I’m still going with the komodo.