The battle between the lion and the tiger has always been a matter of great interest to people, and everyone is curious about who will win if the king of the steppe and the king of the forest fight, and who is the real king of the hundred beasts?
There are no wild lions in China, so Chinese are more familiar with tigers, the most famous of which is the wild Siberian tiger, so under the topic of more lion-tiger competition, Chinese are more supportive of tigers winning. However, foreign countries are diametrically opposed, they think that lions and single tigers have an absolute chance of winning, but this statement is a bit rogue, this competition should be 1V1!
So suppose the Siberian tigers and African lions are put together, who will win the real victory? Although the same cats have similarities, but the differences seem to be more, this article will take you close to the Colosseum of the Siberian tiger and the African lion to see who has a better chance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="223" > Siberian tigers</h1>
Tiger is a big cat mammal with many species, including South China tiger, Bengal tiger, Sumatran tiger and so on. The Siberian tiger is the largest of all subspecies of tigers, known in Russia as the Ussuri tiger or Amur tiger, and the adult Siberian tiger can reach about 3 meters 5 meters in length and weigh 330 kilograms.
At present, the main distribution of Siberian tigers in the northeast territory, according to China's zoologists found that there are four main areas of activity of Siberian tigers, the southern part of Laoye Ridge, the northern part of Laoye Ridge, the eastern part of Wanda Mountain and the western part of Zhang Guangcai Ridge. Siberian tigers are not social animals, so it is found that there is generally only one Siberian tiger in the wild, and there will not be more than one Siberian tiger in the same area at the same time. According to the study, the interior of the Siberian tiger has a hierarchical point, and some of the weaker ones will avoid the young and strong tigers and go hunting and living elsewhere.
Because it is located in some sparsely populated areas in the northeast region, the range of activities of the siberian tiger is also very wide, the female tiger is about 400 square kilometers, and the male tiger can reach more than 1,000 square kilometers. The prey of the Siberian tiger is mainly based on the local biological population, including wild boar, red deer, roe deer, etc., mostly located in the area of 100-550 meters above sea level.
The number of wild Siberian tigers is decreasing year by year, and has been listed as a rare and endangered protected species, but there have been frequent photos of Siberian tigers hunting in the northeast region, hoping that after the establishment of nature reserves, the endangered situation of Siberian tigers can be changed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="228" > African lion</h1>
Lions are subgenus of the carnivorous big cat family Lion, mainly distributed in Asia and Africa. Lions are the only cats that can be distinguished in appearance between male and female, with male lions having manes and female lions not. The highest proportion of lions is the African lion, which lives mainly in the African savannah.
African male lions weigh about 190 to 270 kg, have a body length of 2.5 to 3 m, a tail length of 1 m, and a long mane that extends to the shoulders and chest. Lionesses weigh about 110 to 160 kg.
Unlike Siberian tigers, African lions live in groups, with a lion herd of 10-20 lions, 1-2 adult male lions, several cubs and multiple female lions. And the male lions of the lion group will have a new law, and the old male lion is defeated by the young and strong male lion and will be expelled from the lion group.
Adult male lions generally live for about 10 years, and female lions have a relatively short lifespan. Because it is a social animal, the hunting range of African lions is smaller than that of Siberian tigers, generally about 115-270 square kilometers, near the territory of lions, and will not run too far.
Prey is mainly grassland herbivores, such as wildebeest, reindeer, gazelle and the like, are all hunting populations of African lions. And lions in the group are generally lionesses out hunting, sometimes one, sometimes three or four lioness collective action. The hunted animals are first given to the male lions, highlighting the absolute status of the male lions in the lion group.
African lions used to have a large number, but studies have found that the number of African lions has decreased sharply in recent years, and experts say that if nothing changes are made, African lions will soon be on the verge of extinction.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="235" > comparison between the two</h1>
After a brief understanding of the Siberian tiger and the African lion, let's compare the two of them from three aspects.
First of all, in terms of body size, the body length of the Siberian tiger can reach up to 3.5 meters, the longest African lion can only reach 3 meters, and the weight of the Siberian tiger is about 60kg heavier than the African lion, which is equivalent to the weight of an adult woman. Body weight generally determines the size of strength, so from this point of view, the Siberian tiger is better.
When dissecting the Siberian tiger, scientists found that its muscle fibers were extremely thick, and it was rare to find excess fat, it was almost difficult to see fat, and the strong bones were attached to strong muscles, proving that this animal had a strong explosive force.
There have been relevant news before, after the zoo closed the park, due to the broken electric gate, the electric gate between the lion park and the tiger park was opened. Surveillance replays showed a lion breaking into the tiger park, but the tiger jumped up and bit the neck and dragged for tens of meters, after which it died.
From the monitoring playback, it can be seen that the tiger has a certain size suppression of the lion, and it may be that the tiger learned to climb trees in the forest, so the hind limb ability is very developed. The development of hind limb ability determines that the tiger's jumping ability is also stronger than that of the lion, which is probably the main reason why the tiger can bite the lion's weakness in an instant and kill it.
The second is the ability to hunt, compared with the Siberian tiger's perennial single-handedness, the African male lion because of its high status in the population, so the number of hunts is not as much as the Siberian tiger. And lions fight in groups, cooperating in hunting animals, while tigers rely only on their own abilities. Therefore, from the perspective of hunting ability, tigers have a much higher ability to fight alone than lions, and the terrain in the forest is more complex than that of grasslands, and prey is easier to escape, so tigers are significantly more difficult to hunt.
Perhaps because the lioness goes out hunting all year round, the male lion can enjoy most of the time, so the endurance of the lion running is not as good as the tiger, and the strength and endurance are not as good as the tiger, how can it beat the tiger? Moreover, because tigers hunt in the forest, they have to adapt to the complex terrain and learn to swim in trees, and from this point of view, the Siberian tiger is more powerful.
The last point is IQ, it seems inappropriate to say that animals have IQ, but as long as animals with brains have a certain IQ. Scientists at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have specifically studied the IQ of lions and tigers because of the topic of lion-tiger disputes, and simply and rudely compared the weight of the brains of the two to speculate on their brain volume.
The results showed that the tiger's brain capacity was about fifteen percent higher than that of the lion. Some people may feel unconvinced, obviously from the visual point of view, the lion's head is larger, how can it be that the brain volume is small? The lion's head looks big because of a ring of mane on its face, which visually enlarges its head. However, scientists have found that the skull of a lion is indeed larger than that of a tiger, but the brain capacity is still smaller than that of a tiger. It has been observed that the petite female tiger has about the same brain capacity as the African male lion, so the male tiger is likely to be smarter than the male lion!
It is better to compare with regional differences, most of the areas where Siberian tigers live are relatively cold, but there are also spring, summer, autumn and winter, so Siberian tigers are not only hardy but also heat-resistant. The African grass principle of African lion life is in a very hot state most of the time, and the temperature will not drop too low in winter, which shows that the heat tolerance of African lions is certainly not said, but the cold tolerance is not necessarily strong. If the site of the lion-tiger duel is set in a cold place, the advantage of the Siberian tiger will be more obvious.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="246" > the course of history</h1>
According to the comparative analysis of the three aspects above, I believe that everyone already has the answer in mind. If it is a single fight, the African lion cannot beat the Siberian tiger, and the reason why some people have the illusion that the tiger cannot beat the lion is because the lion fights in groups. If you let the tiger fight with the lions of the African male lions, it will definitely not be able to fight, after all, it is difficult to fight with two fists and four hands.
According to records, in the ancient Roman period, there was a special colosseum for the nobles to watch and entertain, and there were many battles between lions and tigers in the Colosseum, and tigers almost won all victories. Modern scientists have also put lions and tigers of equal size and gender in cages, and finally the tigers have won.
In addition to history, if you look at the territory of lions and tigers in the world today, tigers are more widely distributed than lions. According to the fossils found in China, China's geographers deduced that wild lions once existed in China, located in the Yunnan area, but in the end, without knowing what the reason was, wild lions disappeared from China. Maybe then there was a battle between the lions and tigers, and the tigers won, so they expelled the lions and turned the place into their own territory completely.
Tigers are found from the extremely cold zone to the tropical zone near the equator, which is enough to see the tiger's ability to adapt to hot and cold temperatures, and perhaps because it is a solitary animal, it can only be hungry if it does not hunt, so the tiger and the male lion are much more diligent than the lion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="251" > the latest state of affairs</h1>
At present, the Siberian tiger is already among the endangered protected animals, and although the African lion is not endangered, the situation is not optimistic. According to the study of the existing Siberian tiger population by Chinese biologists, the natural mortality rate of the Siberian tiger is 12%, and the mortality rate of external factors, especially poaching, is as high as 75%. In addition to poaching, the death of African lions has also expanded the scope of local human activities, resulting in a further reduction in the territory of lions and fewer prey that can be hunted. What is even more sad is that AIDS has had a huge impact on the African lion population.
Zoologists have found an epidemic of AIDS in African lion populations, most of the infected are young lions, they look as thin as AIDS patients, and it has not yet been found what causes AIDS to be prevalent in lions, but the survival rate of young lions has decreased, and lion breeding has been hit, so the number of African lions has dropped sharply.
Fortunately, in the past decade, under the initiative of environmentalists and zoologists, many nature reserves have been established, so that poaching has eased and the diversity of species has been maintained.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="255" > conclusion</h1>
The above explains a number of reasons that show that lions can't beat tigers. However, the battle between lions and tigers is basically impossible in real life, because the habitats of the two do not intersect, and large predators will choose to avoid fighting when they meet. Fighting not only wastes physical strength, even if it is won, the large carnivores themselves contain very little fat, which can be said to be laborious and unflattering, so most of the time they will avoid fighting and will not fight.
Both the Siberian tiger and the African lion once had large populations, but now they are endangered, and humans are the initiators. As the most intelligent creature on the planet, maintaining species diversity and protecting the environment is what we should do!