lions are the king of the plains. Tigers rule the jungle. But face to face, which would win?
Well, let’s talk size first. Tigers are heavier, weighing up to 800 pounds to the lion’s 550. But the two cats aren’t so different in size. Here, their profiles are superimposed:
You might remember from high school health class that muscle weighs more than fat, which helps explain the tiger’s extra pounds. So it seems that the tiger would have a physical advantage over the lion.
But it turns out that we have some historical data to add to this conjecture, too. In ancient Rome, the tiger-lion face-off wasn’t uncommon. In 1959, a reader asked the Spokesman-Review this question, and the paper, in turn, asked William Bridges, the curator of publications at the Bronx Zoo. He told them that “back in the day of the Roman Coliseum, the smart money usually backed the tiger.
” While we don’t have any great descriptions of the outcomes, ancient paintings of the event usually showed the tiger winning. And in the late 1800′s, the Gaekwad of Baroda, an Indian ruler, arranged a fight between the two beasts. Before the fight began, those running the bettor set the odds at 1 to 37,000 that the tiger would win. It did, and the Gaekwad lost 37,000 rupees.
Posted by , Published at December 24, 2017 and have
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