Question for Peter

[brotherbear]

A tiger is a very strong and powerful predator. I cannot deny this. A 500 pound Bengal tiger can leap high enough to attack a man riding on the back of an elephant. That's impressive! And yes, a big cat has to pull down and hold very large and powerful herbivores such as buffalo. To do this they have those deeply curved retractable claws and very muscular arms. I can believe that, pound for pound, the tiger is likely as strong as a grizzly; a grizzly at summer weight.
But when the tiger and the brown bear are near equal size in regards to height and length, I will be difficult to convince that their strength might be equal.
At weight parity, I believe that a healthy mature male tiger might defeat a healthy mature male grizzly ( summer weight ) roughly 60% of face-off confrontations. At size parity in regards to height and length, then the odds will favor the bear. ~~From a book by Yudakov and Nikolaev... "Once a very large male tiger ( pad width 13.5 cm ) - ( 5.31 inches ) killed a roe deer and carried it off in its jaws. This was the heaviest load among all of the instances we noted where a tiger carried a prey off the ground. Yet still troughs were left in the snow by the prey's dangling legs stretched along both sides of the tiger tracks. In all, he carried the carcass around 300 meters ( 984 feet ); stopping twice to rest, putting the deer down in the snow." Compare... The Grizzly Almanac by Robert H. Busch. Alberta bear biologist Gordon Stenhouse once watched a large grizzly running effortlessly down a steep mountain slope carrying a 300-pound sheep in its mouth. "The power of these animals is just awesome," he says ( quoted in Struzik, 1999 ). Note: Average weight of a roe deer is from 40 to 70 pounds. When a tiger enthusiast claims that a tiger is equally as strong as a grizzly, he is making an empty bias claim.  Warsaw....   BigBonns wrote:"The Bear McDougal at Brooks was known for once lifting a 700 pound fellow in his jaws and throwing him down as if a bunch of rags." "...As he does so, he lifts the near-700-pound [320-kg] bear clear of the ground and shakes him. The action is occurring in seconds, and I find it hard to believe my eyes. Both bears hit the ground in a tumbling roll. Number 88 has Inge by the neck as he finally regains his feet. He releases his hold and clamps on Inge's jowls, shaking his massive head. Inge rears back, fighting free at the expense of a ripped and bleeding lower jaw..."
http://shaggygod.proboard...ction=display&thread=538*Note: no tiger could lift a 700 pound animal clear off the ground in his jaws and shake him. Such a feat requires a combination of brute strength and leverage.
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