Big cat and Bear tale

[smedz]

AMUR TIGERS AND BEARS     

       In the Russian Far East, there is a rivalry that has been around for likely millions of years. This isn't a two way rivalry, it's a three way rivalry between the Amur tiger, Asiatic black Bear, and the Ussuri Brown Bear a.k.a Black Grizzly. It is well known that tigers will attack and kill bears, but mostly for food when their natural prey is scarce. However, there is apparently much more to it than that. Let's take a look at this situation shall we? 

ASIATIC BLACK BEARS a.k.a MOON BEARS a.k.a HIMALAYAN BLACK BEAR (Okay seriously, why can't we all just stick with one name for this animal?)    

            The Asiatic Black Bear differs from it's North American cousin with it's white marking on it's chest, lighter weight (at least when it comes to max weights). However, one very important difference is that from what I've noticed, Asiatic Black Bears seem to be more aggressive than the American black Bear, but that's just me. These bears are known to hold their own against tigers on multiple occasions, for example, Jim Corbett wrote of an instance where a huge black bear chased off a bengal tiger. But black bears don't always get the upper paw, and we know that tigers, especially Amur tigers, include black bears in their diet. Tigers can and do hunt black bears successfully at any time of the year, and black bears are more frequently attacked by tigers (Tkachenko) and in that study, there is a picture of a black bear skull with an apparent puncture mark made by a tiger, and in the period of 1992-2000 black bears made up 18.2% of prey remains, and in 21.5% of excreta (Tkachenko). I have read before that tigers eat brown bears more often than black bears due to brown bears being not as good at climbing, personally, I do not believe this, simply due to the fact that since black bears are smaller and less powerful than brown bears and are therefore, easier targets, if anyone has knows it's true and knows I'm wrong, please, correct me on that.    

BROWN BEARS 

             This is where is gets really interesting, tigers will actually attack and kill brown bears, but there's more to it than that. Brown bears will follow tigresses and juveniles in order to take their kills, but male tigers seem to be normally avoided by brown bears, and male tigers avoid male brown bears. The reason for this is because both animals know that they can easily kill each other in a full on fight, and see no reason to fight one another, so they practice mutual avoidance, and this is likely why it appears to be rare for a brown bear to fight a male tiger. However, these two do get into battles, and according to 2 documents I read, tigers seem to win more fights, but not always. But I should mention that the percentages of the fights were different in the documents for some reason. I did read of a mother tigress with cubs who fought a brown bear out of maternal instinct, and she won. But from what I read here on the forum, now there is the thinking that tigers expel brown bears because mother bears take their cubs to away from places with tigers, and that makes sense, because if you're a momma bear, then obviously you'd much rather not have to worry about tigers. However, in conclusion, male tigers and brown bears will normally avoid each other, both have powerful jaws, dangerous claws, strength, the tiger has lightning fast reflexes, while the hump of muscle on the bear's back not only allows it to be a great digger, but to also inflict some nasty injuries onto opponents, so they will avoid one another. 

    I look forward to hearing from you, and if I made any errors, please let me know so I can edit this. 

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