The fact is, the lion has slightly more massively built shoulders and the tiger has more developed legs. Overall a tiger is more massively built than a lion. Even pound for pound, a tiger has anatomy-advantage over a lion in the forequarters.
Myth 2: [The tiger hunts larger preys]
The fact is, both these cats generally hunt similar sized preys (the size of wildebeast) and both these cats may go for larger preys once in a while. In some areas, these cats get ’specialized’ in hunting certain kinds of preys. In Nagarahole National Park in India, the tigers prefer to hunt the large gaurs.
Myth 3:[The lion has more bite force]
The fact is, pound for ponud, a tiger has more bite force qutient, though the difference is not huge.
Myth 4: [Tigers are more ferocious]
The fact is, There has never been such a claim by any scientist or noted animal observer. This is a bizare claim with no base. Both these animals show similar ferocity (of course, ferocity is not quantifiable) when drawn into a fight.
Myth 5:[Lions have larger heads]
The fact is, an average lion has (surprisingly) the same size of head as an average Bengal/Siberian/Indochinese tiger. The tiger’s head is just a little wider and shorter, allowing it to have more bite force.
Myth 6:[Lions just fight and tigers just hunt]
The fact is, nomadic male lions hunt regularly and skillfully. Even resident male lions hunt sometimes. On the other hand, tigers fight, often to death, with other tigers. Tigers fight fairly often, so much so that around 30% of tiger deaths (for Bengal tigers) occur due to territorial fights. Also, tigers fight with leopards, bears, wild dogs, elephants etc. Most of the tiger vs tiger and lion vs lion fights end after one combatant escapes while some fights in both the cases may result in severe injury or death.
Myth 7: [The lion has better fighting techniques]
The fact is, the tiger shows better ’skills’ of fighting. It can swipe much faster than a lion, can use both the front legs at the same time for making swipes, is faster and more agile than the lion.
From Wikipedia Discussions:
Wikipedia, being a relatively open body of knowledge and fed by contributions of a lot of informed people (and a lot of morons, too), tend to have more-or-less unbiased information. I’ve found some interesting discussion there (Wikipedia Talk) about tigers and lions. These are mainly about size comparison and the following types of animal interactions. While these don’t necessarily say anything about about fighting skills of either lion or tiger, they go on to show how immensely powerful the tiger is.
Tiger/Lion and Rhino:
There are evidences that tigers in the North and East India kill rhinos, even though rarely. But no lion has been known to have killed a rhino. Not even a lion pride. But this is not a good comparison of strength. It surely goes on to say that the tigers must be super-strong, but it can’t discredit the lion for not attacking a rhino. The African rhinos have longer and sharper horns and may grow bigger than the Indian ones.
There's 2 WWF report:
1 report is on two orphan rhino calves whose mother has been killed by a tiger.
Another report saying that three rhinos have been killed by tiger(s).
Tiger/Lion and Elephant:
The Indian elephants avoid tigers. Elephants are known to be attacked by tigers, even though rarely. One single tiger can kill a bull elephant. While it’s true that one single lion can not kill a bull elephant, we need to see the difference in elephants.
The African elephants are much larger than the Indian ones and have longer tasks. A bull African elephant is around 1.5 times in weight compared to an Indian one.
There’s a Yahoo!News article about how a bull elephant died after getting injured by a Bengal tigress. One of the most viewed videos online is a small clip where a tiger attacks the person sitting on an elephant. Notice how the tiger completely ignores the elephant!
Tiger/Lion and Buffalo:
The tiger wins a point here. It’s extremely rare for a single lion to take down a Cape Buffalo. The tigers frequently prey on Gaur and Asian Water Buffalo, both of which are much bigger than the Cape Buffalo. The Gaur is the largest of the major species of wild oxen and has a superb muscular built. It can stand more than 6′ at shoulder and weigh more than a ton. This journal paper by John Singh indicates that Gaur falls into regular prey category of tigers. A Gaur had reportedly been killed and dragged by a tiger whereas 13 men could not move the carcass!
~Tag Board~ 
!
No comments:
Post a Comment