The Mighty Grizzly
Ursus arctos. Brown bear. Grizzly.
Since the year 2000, I have participated in numerous wild animal face-off blog sites. The big three adversaries are the lion, the tiger, and the mighty grizzly. In the early years, my main arch enemies were both lion fanboys and tiger fanboys. These guys, regardless of age, are juvenile, radical, dishonest, guys who care nothing for an open honest debate. They lie and cheat and create fake data.
But equally as infuriating is a fellow bear enthusiast. He created a rather rude habit of always disagreeing with anything that I felt passionate about. Even though he is a self-proclaimed tiger-hater, he fills page after page arguing against my discoveries even though the reason I feel so passionate about each one is the prefect indisputable logic of them. He doesn't stop to realize that these pages of argument destroy the value of the topic. After about a dozen or so pages filled with heated arguing, then he usually settles down and agrees to my logic. Too late! At this point the topic has been destroyed because anyone reading it finds all of this dishevel and so does not take the topic seriously. I have deleted several complete topics from "Domain of the Bears" - topics I really cared about - because of this bear enthusiast's attacks. If he would just take his time and read my posts carefully, then he would not be disagreeing before ten or twenty pages are filled with infuriating arguments.
Unlike "that guy", I greatly admire the big cats. I consider them to be the greatest land-based predators on earth. While the wolf has a greater hunting success rate, it is the big cats who take down the biggest prey. To debate with actual mature big cat enthusiasts is a pleasure.
Here are two topics which "that guy" disagreed with me on:
1- Size Parity. The most logical method of obtaining size parity when discussing a wild animal face-off which gives each species a fair comparison is to measure them at equal head-and-body length. Remember that the goal is not to make the two animals equal so as to give them each a 50-50 chance of winning. That would ruin the entire idea of what a face-off is all about. The object is to make a fair comparison which will highlight each animals natural advantages and disadvantages. At equal head-and-body length, the grizzly retains his natural advantages of weight and strength. The big cat retains his natural advantages of speed and agility. If we were to pit them in a face-off according to weight parity, we would then be cheating the grizzly of his natural weight and strength advantages. Also, we would be giving the big cat a bonus advantage of length and height of no less than a foot ( 30.5 cm ).
2- Grizzly as a kleptoparasite. In the Russian taiga, the mature male grizzly will displace other predators from their kills at any given opportunity. This includes mature male tigers. Some biologists disagree with this because at a discovered kill site there is rarely any evidence of a skirmish between the big cat and the bear. But footprints cannot tell the tale when the tiger walks away from his kill without giving the grizzly any fight.
A study of cat behavior can tell us more than can footprints in the dirt. A sloth bear can and will displace a leopard from its kill without making any physical contact with the cat. An American black bear can and will displace a cougar from its kill without any physical contact with the cat. In both cases, the big cat will simply relinquish the carcass over to the bear rather than fight and risk death or injury.
The size ratio between sloth bear and leopard / black bear and cougar are no different than between a Russian grizzly and an Amur tiger. There is therefore absolutely no logical reason to assume that the tiger would stand his ground in defense of a carcass against a mature grizzly boar.
Further evidence to back this up is the fact that a Bengal tiger is unwilling to fight a sloth bear only half his weight face-to-face. Why then should one assume that a tiger would willingly fight a grizzly that outweighs him by a couple of hundred pounds?
Since the year 2000, I have participated in numerous wild animal face-off blog sites. The big three adversaries are the lion, the tiger, and the mighty grizzly. In the early years, my main arch enemies were both lion fanboys and tiger fanboys. These guys, regardless of age, are juvenile, radical, dishonest, guys who care nothing for an open honest debate. They lie and cheat and create fake data.
But equally as infuriating is a fellow bear enthusiast. He created a rather rude habit of always disagreeing with anything that I felt passionate about. Even though he is a self-proclaimed tiger-hater, he fills page after page arguing against my discoveries even though the reason I feel so passionate about each one is the prefect indisputable logic of them. He doesn't stop to realize that these pages of argument destroy the value of the topic. After about a dozen or so pages filled with heated arguing, then he usually settles down and agrees to my logic. Too late! At this point the topic has been destroyed because anyone reading it finds all of this dishevel and so does not take the topic seriously. I have deleted several complete topics from "Domain of the Bears" - topics I really cared about - because of this bear enthusiast's attacks. If he would just take his time and read my posts carefully, then he would not be disagreeing before ten or twenty pages are filled with infuriating arguments.
Unlike "that guy", I greatly admire the big cats. I consider them to be the greatest land-based predators on earth. While the wolf has a greater hunting success rate, it is the big cats who take down the biggest prey. To debate with actual mature big cat enthusiasts is a pleasure.
Here are two topics which "that guy" disagreed with me on:
1- Size Parity. The most logical method of obtaining size parity when discussing a wild animal face-off which gives each species a fair comparison is to measure them at equal head-and-body length. Remember that the goal is not to make the two animals equal so as to give them each a 50-50 chance of winning. That would ruin the entire idea of what a face-off is all about. The object is to make a fair comparison which will highlight each animals natural advantages and disadvantages. At equal head-and-body length, the grizzly retains his natural advantages of weight and strength. The big cat retains his natural advantages of speed and agility. If we were to pit them in a face-off according to weight parity, we would then be cheating the grizzly of his natural weight and strength advantages. Also, we would be giving the big cat a bonus advantage of length and height of no less than a foot ( 30.5 cm ).
2- Grizzly as a kleptoparasite. In the Russian taiga, the mature male grizzly will displace other predators from their kills at any given opportunity. This includes mature male tigers. Some biologists disagree with this because at a discovered kill site there is rarely any evidence of a skirmish between the big cat and the bear. But footprints cannot tell the tale when the tiger walks away from his kill without giving the grizzly any fight.
A study of cat behavior can tell us more than can footprints in the dirt. A sloth bear can and will displace a leopard from its kill without making any physical contact with the cat. An American black bear can and will displace a cougar from its kill without any physical contact with the cat. In both cases, the big cat will simply relinquish the carcass over to the bear rather than fight and risk death or injury.
The size ratio between sloth bear and leopard / black bear and cougar are no different than between a Russian grizzly and an Amur tiger. There is therefore absolutely no logical reason to assume that the tiger would stand his ground in defense of a carcass against a mature grizzly boar.
Further evidence to back this up is the fact that a Bengal tiger is unwilling to fight a sloth bear only half his weight face-to-face. Why then should one assume that a tiger would willingly fight a grizzly that outweighs him by a couple of hundred pounds?
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