Big cat and Bear tale

[Shadow]

(03-11-2020, 11:27 PM)Diamir2 Wrote: bears avoid tigers, the opposite is not true

Here is no true or false in that way, that there would be some absolutes. Do sloth bears actively seek tigers to go "hang around"? 
No, of course not. 

Do they then again always run away, when seeing a tiger? 
Nope, as many clips show, they can do quite the opposite and tiger can be the one fleeing. Do they avoid areas in which tigers live? Obviously no, again more than enough proof, that they co-exist quite fine.

Then again it´s clear that tigers are threat to sloth bears and sloth bears won´t search fights with tigers. That would be crazy with that kind of overall size difference. Whenever they have conflict with tigers it´s because tiger has approached so close, that sloth bear has no other choice but to act defensively. Any animal feeling cornered in some way acts in the same way.

Then again if we talk about bears overall, we have Asiatic black bears and brown bears, who actually follow tigers many times in order to find tiger kills and get "free food". So it´s again very clear, that bears in general don´t avoid tigers, quite the opposite. Then again only brown bears are big and strong enough to have on purpose direct confrontation with tigers. Maybe some big Asiatic black bear males can challenge tigresses, but with male tigers only other land predator big and strong enough to make that challenge is adult male brown bear. Well, a male lion would be another, but at the moment they don´t meet in the wild.

So this matter is a bit complicated and depends about what bears we are talking about. One fascinating thing in wildlife is, that there are very few absolute truths. But it´s clear, that if talking about bears overall, not all bears avoid tigers. Even though sloth bears and Asiatic black bears are clear underdogs in confrontations with tigers if situation leads to real fight. And for sure sloth bears won´t follow tigers, they can be sloppy, funny and very nonchalant, but I haven´t seen or heard them to show suicidal tendencies.... Reply