Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[Spalea]

IMO between captive felids anything can happen. In zoo we sometimes learn that a lioness kills a male lion, a leopard kills a tigress. So what ? What about their health, age, physical conditions (are they poorly fed, mistreated ?) ? We don't know but anything is possible. We just have the brute fact.

In wild, if a big felid wants to kill a smaller one (by a significant margin), the maximum that the latter could hope is to escape itself. Of course accident can happen, a bad fall for example. But I don't believe at all that the smaller cat could exclusively kill the big one. The big one could be wounded too, ( leopards for example could lacerate the opponent's face in a case of desperate attempt, thex excell at it), but killed in a furious fight ? No. Reply