Who is stronger, lion or tiger? Who is better at hunting, felines or canines? Leopards and mountain lions who are the four old cats? Interested in these questions are not only ordinary animal lovers, but also experts in animal ecology and anatomy. As we all know, the most important thing for hunting and fighting is nothing more than the skull and forelimbs, this time the experts analyzed the forelimb skeleton structure of cats and canines, let's take a look at who is the strongest.
The tiger, the king of all beasts, deserves its name
The experts made detailed measurements and calculations of the forelimb bones of 31 cats and 17 canines, and set up a total of 13 indicators, which represented a certain aspect of the animal's ability. The calculated figures are relative to the size of the animal, so it can be a good reference for the animal's ability to hunt and fight in the same size. Let's put the results first, and then explain in detail what these indicators are used to illustrate.
Feline and canine forelimb hardware measurements
These 13 indicators tell us which predators are powered and which are speedy. For ease of explanation, these indicators are grouped into two categories: the coarseness indicator and the length indicator.
Forelimb hardware indicator calculation formula
As the name suggests, the thickness index is a measure of bone thickness, with a total of 10 indicators. Among them, the five indicators of palm width (paw), wrist width (rai), wrist joint area (raa), metacarpal thickness (mc3ri) and toe joint area (mc3aa) are greatly related to the animal forefoot strength, grip stability and the ability of the forefoot and wrist joint to bear pressure.
The humerus is the thickest bone in the upper arm, and the radius is the thickest bone in the forearm. The humerus coarseness index (hri) and radial coarseness index (rri) represent the humerus and radius's ability to withstand palm reaction and bite resistance, respectively, and the thicker bones are less prone to fractures.
ocelot
The epicondyle is the thickest part of the humerus, on which multiple flexor muscles are attached. Thus, the epicondyle thickness index (hei) measures the size of several muscles associated with fighting, directly related to the strength and agility of the forelimbs. The two indexes of elbow width (hai) and elbow joint area (haa) measure the size of the elbow joint, which determine the strength and flexibility of forearm rotation, as well as the ability of the forelimb to grasp.
For these coarseness measures, the big cat class (in a broad sense, including clouded leopards and mountain lions) invariably topped the list, but leopards and mountain lions lagged behind tigers, jaguars and lions. In the canine family, serval dogs and raccoons perform well, ranking only behind large cats, and individual indicators (thick upper condyle, relative size of the elbow joint and wrist joint) even surpass leopards and mountain lions. The top ranked small and medium-sized cats are fishing cats and tiger cats. Cats, serval cats, foxes (true foxes, excluding gray foxes and crab-eating foxes), jackals and maned wolves are at the bottom.
Bush Cat
The length indicator measures only three. The humeral length index (1/bi) measures the relative length of the humerus. The forelimb of an animal can be seen as a lever, with the elbow joint as the fulcrum, the humerus (upper arm) as the dynamic arm, and the radius (forearm) as the resistance arm. As a result, the longer humerus forelimbs are more vigorous, including the Asian golden cat, clouded leopard, serval dog, slender-waisted cat, large cat, tiger cat and raccoon. The radius of the maned wolf, canine, serval cat, Canadian lynx, Spanish lynx and cat genus is relatively long, and these animals have weaker forelimbs but are suitable for catching small, dexterous or very running prey.
Canadian lynx
The eagle's beak is the bony bulge of the ulna at the elbow, with the triceps brachiophysis attached, and the triceps muscle is the only extensor muscle in the upper arm, so a higher eagle's beak index (oi) means that the forelimbs stretch stronger, and the animal has greater strength to put the prey down for fixation and bite. Serval dogs are ranked first, followed by big cats, leopards and mountain lions are again slightly behind, and fishing cats, African wild dogs, raccoons, clouded leopards and wolves are also strong. At the bottom are the maned wolf, cat genus, Canadian lynx and serval cat.
The toe length index (mcp) measures forefoot flexibility. This indicator is different from others, small prey hunting experts score higher, and only clouded leopards and snow leopards are among the big cats, and leopards, cheetahs and mountain lions are all counted down. Sand cats and Canadian lynx, which have always been at the bottom, ran to the front, and only the maned wolf was still at the bottom.
Maned Wolf: The penultimate number one in 10,000 years
In order to quantify the 13 forelimb hardware indicators, we use a percentage system to score, with the so-called all-round jaguar as 100 points, other species calculate the corresponding score according to the relative value of the jaguar, and finally find the average score of 13 indicators, the higher the score, the better at fighting. The impact of these indicators on combat effectiveness is certainly asymmetrical, but we cannot know the respective weights at present, so we have to calculate it simply as a reference.
Quantitative analysis of feline and canine forelimb hardware
The results showed that the tiger was worthy of being the king of all beasts, ranking first, and the jaguar followed by a slight gap, and the two of them were the most suitable for fighting among the existing cats and dogs. Next up are the clouded leopard (3), the lion (4), and the snow leopard (5). Serval dogs (6) ranked ahead of leopards (7) and fishing cats (8) ahead of mountain lions (9). Raccoons ranked 10th.
We found that forelimb strength was strongly correlated with the taxa to which the animal belonged. Felines are much stronger than canines, with 15 species of cats and 2 species of canines in the top 17, while the last 12 are 2 species of cats and 10 species of canines.
red fox
Even after excluding body size, large predators are better at fighting than small predators. This is particularly evident in cats, where feeding is more thoroughly differentiated, with larger cats tending to hunt larger ungulates that require greater strength, while small cats feed on prey (rabbits, mice) smaller than themselves, and speed and agility are more important.
In the cat family, the forelimbs of the leopard subfamily are stronger than those of the cat subfamily, and the weakest leopard (leopard) is also stronger than the strongest cat (fishing cat). Among the cat subfamily, the asian golden cat (12) and cloud cat (13), the tiger cat (11) and the long-tailed tiger cat (16), as well as the mountain lion (10) and the slender-waisted cat (14) are stronger. The largest of the families is also often the most powerful in forelimb hardware, such as the tiger cat of the genus Tiger Cat, the fishing cat of the genus Ocelot, and the Eurasian lynx of the genus Lynx (17).
Island Grey Fox
Wolves and African wild dogs were the two largest canines on the review, topping the canine family (3rd and 5th in the canine family, respectively), while being below the middle of the cat (18 and 25 overall). It is worth noting that the little-known Grey Fox family is very powerful, including two small primitive dogs in California (called foxes instead of foxes): Gray Fox (28, Canine family 6) and island gray fox (20, Canine family 4), which scored higher in humeral length, toe length and wrist joint area indicators.
The maned wolf (48, penultimate 1), fox (37-47), coyotes and jackals (38-42) of the canine family are very weak in forelimb hardware, and they almost cover the bottom ten of the overall list. The weakest of the felines is the serval cat (45), followed by the cat genus (30-43) where the domestic cat belongs. The weakest big cat is the cheetah (32) and the weakest lynx is the Canadian lynx (35).
cheetah
Below, we can use the above data to solve the practical problem. What everyone is most interested in is the lion and tiger fight. In general, lions and tigers are very capable of fighting, with tigers ranking first in total scores and lions ranking fourth. We found that tigers were stronger than lions in 13 indicators, but their rankings were mostly side by side, with only two indicators, humeral length and toe length. The relative length of the humerus determines the mechanical advantage of the forelimbs, which indicates that the tiger has more forelimb strength, while the lion has an advantage in running. This may be because lions live on endless grasslands, are not easy to ambush, and need to do more hunting.
lion
Then there is the "feline old four" dispute. From the results, the leopard is stronger than the mountain lion, but the gap between the two is smaller than the tiger and the lion, and the 13 indicators leopard is 8, the mountain lion is 4 ahead of it, and the humeral length is almost equal. Leopard forelimbs are characterized by thick upper (humerus), thin lower (radius), and relatively broad and flattened limb bones, which is a typical feature of the leopard subfamily. Mountain lions have humerus and radius that are almost the same thickness, and the limb bones are relatively rounded, which is the reason why the forelimbs of mountain lions are visually thicker than leopards.
Tigers and lions, leopards and mountain lions are two groups of similar sizes. Skull hardware is also stronger for tigers and leopards, which is manifested in the length of canine teeth and bite force quotient ahead of their opponents. Therefore, we are undoubtedly correct to say that tigers are stronger than lions and leopards are stronger than mountain lions. But on the other hand, the gap between these two sets of hardware is indeed not large, and some people say that it is not unreasonable to look at specific individuals and who is big and who is strong. As long as the lion is significantly larger than the tiger, it can win, and the same is true for the mountain lion against the leopard.
leopard
Some readers like to ask, if you enlarge the domestic cat to the size of a tiger, can you beat a tiger? The calculations clearly show that even when placed in the same size, the forelimb strength of small cats is significantly inferior to that of large cats, and the ancestor of domestic cats, the wild cat, is the third-to-last of the cat family (36 overall). Domestic cats catch mice on a daily basis, while tigers catch wild boars, deer and bison, and there is no comparison between the two. Really put the domestic cat as big as a tiger, not only can the strength not go up, but also the agility is lost. So don't always think about how powerful the domestic cat is, its wild relatives are stronger than it.
The only example of a cat subfamily killing a leopard subfamily is that a fishing cat in a zoo kills a female leopard. According to the calculation results, the forelimb strength of fishing cats is the first in the cat subfamily, and the non-domestic cat is comparable; while the leopard is the first in the leopard subfamily, and the advantage over the fishing cat is limited in the case of small differences in body size. Moreover, there is a big gap between the wild nature of the two in this incident, the fishing cat is a wild catcher who has just entered the park, and the female leopard is already tamed.
Fishing cats
Felines and canines are old enemies, and we take Eurasian lynx and wolves as examples to make a comparison. Judging from the evaluation, the difference between the total scores of lynx and wolves is not large, but there are obvious differences in individual indicators, 13 indicators lynx lead 7, wolves lead 6. In general, lynx have thick humerus, broad forefoots, and thick toebones, while wolves have thick elbow joints and more developed radius. This is also a typical difference between felines and canines.
Eurasian lynx
In the spring of 2017, a male lynx in Belarus crushed a male wolf to the ground, injuring its abdomen; the average local male wolf weighed about 1.7 times that of a male lynx. It can be seen that when the feline and the canine are relatively close in the case of hardware quantitative scores, cats are still significantly stronger than dogs, which may be because the forelimbs of canines can only be used to push and squeeze opponents, and do not have the strong functionality of feline forelimbs, and cats also have retractable sharp claws.
Conversely, if cats are larger than canines, there will be one-sided situations, such as mountain lions and wolves, and mountain lions have a record of chasing two wolves and successfully biting one to death. In general, the size and hardware of canines are far inferior to those of cats, and their individual combat ability cannot be compared with cats, so they choose to live in groups for food.
wolf
Cheetahs usually dare not resist when they see hyenas, but leopards, especially male leopards, dare to challenge hyenas, because leopards are much stronger than cheetahs in the same size. The Canadian lynx has been killed many times by fishing minks that are far less than their own size, once making everyone suspect that the feline is not a mustel opponent, although there are reasons for the fishing mink itself and with the help of special environment, the Canadian lynx is indeed waste wood in the cat family (the fourth to last); the short-tailed cat with stronger hardware can frequently kill the female fishing mink, and the Eurasian lynx can fight away the wolverine.
In an article some time ago, I told you the story of badgers and raccoons, and in Belarus two raccoons (4.5-6 kg) bit a badger (about 11 kg). Judging from today's evaluation, the raccoon is indeed a fierce character. Although the serval dog is the strongest hardware canine, there is a lack of data to assess its combat effectiveness.
Bush Dog
By analyzing this data provided by experts, it is easy to know which predator has more forelimb strength. However, no structure is perfect, and the pursuit of strength sacrifices speed and agility. The body structure of animals is the best adaptation to their respective living environments and prey. For example, the elongated forelimbs of the maned wolf and the serval cat, although weak, expand the attack range and are very helpful for catching mice. Foxes and cats have thin limb bones, which is not a kind of "burden reduction", and their prey is very small, so they rarely encounter fierce resistance.
House Cat
In addition, the interspecific competition between carnivores is by no means as simple as that of mechanical beasts. Although canines lack individual abilities, social colonization makes up for this disadvantage well, so coyotes can defeat short-tailed cats and wolves can defeat mountain lions. The environment can greatly affect the animal play, in North America can suppress the mountain lion of the big bad wolf, to Europe but can not even deal with the lynx. Nature is so wonderful!