Lions and tigers are well matched for both size and weaponry, so it’s far from obvious which would have the edge should fur start flying.
One clue might be that lions tend to hunt and defend themselves in groups, while tigers are proverbial lone wolves, which might put the latter at an advantage in a one-to-one situation.
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Either way, there is little opportunity to test it. Historically, the two species overlapped in the Middle East and South Asia, but not anymore. Tigers are now restricted to South and East Asia, while lions are largely confined to Africa. Even the small lion population that hangs on in the west of India is a long way from the nearest tiger.
All we really have to go on is reports of encounters in artificial settings. One often-told tale involves a contest staged by an Indian Maharaja named Sayajirao Gaekwad III in the late 1800s to establish whether the lion or tiger was more deserving of the title ‘king of the beasts’.
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The fight is said to have been held in front of a crowd of thousands and was supposedly won by the tiger after a protracted and bloody battle. However, a lack of first-hand evidence suggests the story is little more than a well-travelled myth.
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More convincing are reports of incidents at zoos and circuses around the world. One, described by Charles Darwin in 1871, involved a captive tiger in England killing a lion after breaking into its cage. And in 2010, in Ankara Zoo, Turkey, a male tiger named Kadir killed a male lion in a neighbouring enclosure by reaching through a narrow gap in the fence and severing the tiger’s jugular vein with a single swipe of its claws.
But tigers don’t always emerge victorious. Newspapers reported on a lion killing a tiger in Australia’s South Perth Zoo in 1949. And during a circus performance in Detroit in 1951, a lion attacked and killed a tiger “in the presence of 3000 screaming children”.
So, it seems a lion can indeed kill a tiger, but not if the tiger kills the lion first.
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