Let’s talk about the defensive effect of the mane: Since the 17th century, zoologists have been thinking about the role of the lion’s mane. They speculate that this fluffy thing may be used to defend against opponents. The teeth are long and sharp, perhaps to attract the attention of the opposite sex. However, according to the experimental results conducted by scientists, the mane does not have much defensive effect. The research results show that the mane is only a signal representing the fertility and health status of male lions, and this signal is important for female lions to choose mating partners and evaluate hostile males. The strength of the lion is very important. Craig Packer and Peyton M. West of the University of Minnesota examined photos of 568 male lions taken in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park since 1964 and compared the shape of each male's mane with long-term behavioral records. in conclusion. "Zologists have been exploring the important role of lion's manes since Darwin's time," says Kay E. Holekamp of Michigan State University. Such a discovery (Craig & West) is very important and interesting because it not only solves a long-standing problem that has puzzled scientists, but also sheds light on the benefits and disadvantages of lion's mane. Charles Darwin, who knew next to nothing about lions, was one of the first to suggest the protective properties of the lion's mane, writing: "The lion's mane is a very excellent defense against the attacks of its adversaries." This no. The hypothesis was very popular until 1972, when Dr. George Schaller published his book "The Lions of the Serengeti" and proposed that a male lion's thick mane was a signal of a male's status. Although these two views are not mutually exclusive, until 1995, no scientists had systematically verified either view. Craig Packer and Peyton West, who later conducted verification work, proposed three basic characteristics of manes: 1. Only male lions have manes 2. Male lions generally grow manes when they are about to reach adulthood 3. Different populations and the same population The variation between manes is very large. craig packer has been studying lions in the serengeti park for almost 30 years, and he has gone through all the tedium of painstaking experiments and scientific exploration. More than three decades of observational records have led scientists to wonder what features of manes are most beneficial to lions? The lion's deadly tusks and claws may support Darwin's idea that lions profit from fights through the protective effects of their manes. However, avoiding fights would bring greater benefits, which means that male lions can show their abilities through their manes and effectively scare opponents away from the potential harm caused by fights. If the mane evolved to defend against the opponent's attacks, then the enemy would inevitably attack the area covered by the mane more during a fight. However, scientists concluded that the mane area does not exist in the mane area by examining the fights they witnessed and historical records. It is not the preferred target of lions, and once attacked, the mortality rate is not higher than that of body parts, and most importantly, this conclusion also applies to lionesses and juvenile lions without manes. (For maneless lionesses and juvenile lions, wounds in corresponding mane areas were no more fatal or more frequent than other parts of the body, a result consistent with testing of adult male lions.) The scientists Another interesting phenomenon observed is that many male lions will greatly reduce or even fall off their manes after being injured in fights - strong evidence that more manes represent a healthy state. Kerbis Peterhans, a Ph.D. in natural sciences at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and Thomas Gnoske, a zoologist at the Chicago Museum of Natural History, proposed that lions' manes are used to assess (individual strength, health status) and adaptation to climate change - based on the research results Compared with the Serengeti plains and shrublands, the temperature in the Ngorongoro Crater is the lowest, and the male lions here have the thickest and darkest manes. That is to say, the changes in the length and thickness of a lion's mane do not appear to be affected by fighting - for example, the forehead area more vulnerable to fatal injuries does not have more mane to protect it - but more related to climate and related to health status. Finally I would like to mention the example of the Maneless Lion of Chavo. It is well known that the maneless lion is a characteristic used by scientists to characterize the maneless and sparse male lions here, and not all Tsavo male lions are "completely" maneless - although their manes are smaller than those of Seren. Getty's neighbors are much rarer.

Assuming that the mane has a significant protective effect, then the maneless male lions of Chavo are at an obvious disadvantage against the male lions with a certain mane, which means that from an evolutionary perspective, the maneless lions are more likely to be eliminated ---They cannot challenge the maned lion leader, and once they sit on the throne of the lion king, they can easily be driven off by the maned lion, and their mortality rate will be higher in the fight with the maned lion. However, in fact, far from being eliminated, the maneless lions are quite prosperous compared with the maned lions here. Overall, I think the protective effect of lion's mane is minimal. According to scientists' experiments and data analysis in recent years, the mane is more of a symbolic signal, and the degree of change in the mane also depends more on on climate and health status. I personally think that the mane may slightly soften the opponent's palm strike, but in fact the palm strike damages the opponent's face more than the neck and shoulders covered by the mane. For male lions, it is unwise to attack the front half of the opponent - even if it is not covered by the mane - the opponent's fangs and claws provide the most effective protection. Author: Hu Hou The concept that tigers are stronger than lions has been generally recognized in academic circles. The following is an explanation through the detailed data of tigers and lions. The data listed are all averages. Adult healthy ligers are used below. Since the difference between female lions and male lions is too large, male lions are generally used as lions. 1. Compared with body size, there is no objection that tiger is the largest cat. But in the ancient Western world, all they had access to were the largest African lions and the smallest Central and South Asian tigers, which caused visual misunderstandings. They believed that lions were the largest cats and became the symbols of many Western countries. . It was not until they came into contact with the larger and more ferocious Menghu and Xihu more than a hundred years ago that this concept finally changed, forming a shift from the lion-centered theory to the tiger-centered theory. In the East, the tiger has always been firmly located in the middle hall and is a symbol of God, while the lion is just a gatekeeper and a symbol of beasts. In this way, due to the difference in subjective consciousness between East and West about ligers, it finally triggered the millennium debate about ligers and tigers fighting. In battles between ferocious beasts, the larger ones often have a considerable advantage. It seems unconvincing that a larger tiger will win over a lion. The situations mentioned below are all situations where ligers and tigers are equal. 2. Physiological data below covers almost all the physiological characteristics of beasts: (1) Compared with a lion, the head looks quite large because of its mane. In fact, after removing the mane, it is almost the same as a tiger. After skinning, the lion Tigers are also hard to tell apart, so the skulls don't differ much. The mane is a symbol of the lion, so much so that it is often exaggerated and even becomes a weapon of victory. Biologically speaking, the function of a male lion's mane is defined as: a display of strength between male lions and a standard for female lions to choose a mate. The mane has a certain defensive effect on the male lion but at the same time weakens its offensive ability. (2) Heart capacity In anatomy, the heart capacity of tigers is larger than that of African lions, which is very important. Among opponents of equal physical quality, it reflects a species' greater explosive power, endurance and physical recovery capabilities. Female tigers average 0.65%, male tigers 0.64%, female lions 0.57%, male lions 0.46%, male leopards 0.36%, hyenas 0.95% (3) The opening and closing of the mouth of cats is about 60 degrees (the saber-toothed tiger can reach 100 degrees), and the tiger's jaw is ball-shaped. The bite force of a liger is the most developed among cats. The bite force of a liger is slightly stronger than that of a tiger. A tiger weighs about 450kg and a male lion weighs 400kg. 770kg, about 80kg for a person). The canine teeth of tigers are about 6cm long and those of male lions are about 5cm. The bite depth of tigers is about 11cm and that of male lions is about 9cm. A bite depth of 1cm can often determine whether the opponent lives or dies. This also makes the fatality rate of lions' prey much smaller than that of tigers. But the lion's teeth are slightly thicker than the tiger's. Biologists explain that the reason why lions have thick teeth is because the lion cannot kill the prey quickly and the prey resists. In order to prevent the canine teeth from breaking during the prey's resistance, the canine teeth evolved to be thicker. (4) Forelimbs The tiger's forefoot is the largest among cats. The width of the palm pad of male tiger is about 10.5-11.5cm, that of female tiger is about 8.5-9.5cm, and that of male lion is about 7.5cm. Palm strike is a common technique used by tigers. Its palm force ranks the highest among cats, reaching 1 ton (the instant palm force reaches 800KG). It is 10% more powerful than a male lion. However, whether a lion is killing or preying, its palm strike is powerful. Not its characteristic. Cats all have the habit of sharpening their claws, but the frequency of sharpening of lions' claws decreases after adulthood. This is related to the living environment, so the claws are not as sharp as tigers. The tiger's claws are the longest among cats, about 10cm for the western tiger, about 9.2cm for the Bengal tiger, and about 8cm for the lion.

Lions are often thrown off by large prey, which shows that their forelimbs are not strong enough and their claws are not deeply embedded, while tigers are extremely difficult to be thrown off by bison. (5) Hind limbs The lion's hind limbs are not strong enough and can only stand semi-upright, so lions are not good at palm strikes. However, the tiger's hind limbs are powerful and can stand completely upright. When upright, they can be one and a half heads taller than the lion. Hind limb strength directly affects jumping ability. Tigers can jump to a height of 2.2-2.4m, female lions are about 1.8m, tigers can reach a height of 6.5m, female lions are 4.5m, and male lions can hardly jump. Overall, the tiger's limbs are thicker, while the lion's limbs are relatively thin. (6) Muscles Bengal tigers and lions are both tropical and subtropical, and their muscles are similar. The tiger's shoulders are powerful, while the lion's power is concentrated in the neck. The Siberian tiger's fat is mainly under the skin rather than attached to the muscles. Its muscle weight can account for about 70% of the body weight. According to Chinese biologists’ anatomy report on Siberian tigers: The muscle fibers of Siberian tigers are extremely thick, with almost no fat, and are stronger than the muscles of the best bodybuilders. (7) Skeleton Tigers have more perfect bones, and their average bone density is about 1.2% higher than that of lions, which means that tigers are stronger and more capable of resisting attacks. (8) Speed ??The tiger's sprint speed reaches 80KM, while the lion's sprint speed is only 60KM. (9) Flexibility Tigers have a slender body, while male lions have a stubby body, which means that tigers can turn around in a wider range and more dexterously. (10) In terms of other balance skills, tigers can walk on the balance beam in gymnastics competitions, but lions cannot. Although the tiger's tail is not as powerful as the legend says, it is still its offensive weapon. The lion's tail has no offensive effect. Cat observers believe that tigers are cunning in nature, while lions are relatively straightforward. The above is a physical comparison of hardware, and the following is a comparison of ligers in practical life. In fact, it is a technical software comparison. Skills are very important to beasts. Someone once simulated a duel between beasts, but it was immediately considered a joke because they only entered the hardware data but forgot to enter the skill data, because according to this simulation, the cheetah would not be able to catch the goral. , and leopards cannot catch zebras, because these prey are stronger than predators. Zebras can kick leopards over with one kick, and the data shows that leopards will not avoid it and will 100% be kicked to death. Therefore, this simulation believes that the earth It is impossible for a beast to hunt prey larger than itself, but in fact... About the beast showdown: (1) The basic data of lions and tigers in discovery are: tiger, weight 570 pounds; length 10.2 feet; shoulder 3 feet tall; claws 3 inches long; canine teeth 4 inches; bite force >1,000 pounds. Lion, weight 530 pounds; length 10.8 feet; height at the shoulder 4 feet; claws 3 feet long; canine teeth 3 inches; bite force >1,000 pounds. The lion is actually longer than the tiger, and 33% taller. I really don’t know how these experts came up with the data. Even if the tiger is Meng Hu, this data is incorrect. (2) The lion's fighting power comes from the life-and-death battle between two lions fighting for territory, while the tiger's fighting power comes from the battle between two tigers playing. Is it strange that there is no mistake in this framing? I really doubt the intentions of the discovery experts. (3) Discovery is a TV program that requires increasing ratings and attention. How to improve it? If you say a tiger eats a wolf, no one will be interested. But if you say a wolf eats a tiger, I believe everyone will watch it. .In fact, whether it is domestic or foreign, whether it is Japan or the United States and the United Kingdom, the voting results are that tigers have a high winning rate, and some are not even a little higher. Discovery’s own website has a tiger vs. lion winning rate of 85%. Including foreign countries Experts' comments are also mostly optimistic about Tiger. However, Discovery goes against the grain. The purpose is very simple, to improve the audience's concentration! (4) Discovery's production technology? I don't understand what he is doing with a bunch of models? In fact, technology is so advanced now, especially computer production technology. Making a fighting program and inputting relevant data is not much better than a bunch of shabby models? To put it bluntly, he made that model just to attract publicity. 3. Living habits (1) Some people say that lions have strong fighting power because they live in groups, that is, lions are stronger than tigers. In fact, this kind of people are talking based on the actual life of lions, that is, the overall consciousness of lions is strong, but they ignore another fact, that is, in a group of lions fighting among the same kind, only the strongest male lion can decide the outcome. So will lions regard tigers as the same kind? The answer is possible, because natural mating will occur between tigers and lions. This can only happen among wild animals if they regard each other as the same kind.

(2) Some people also say that male lions make a living by fighting, so they think that male lions have a stronger desire to fight. However, they do not know that tigers are extremely territorial. Small tigers will also fight against large tigers that intrude into their territory. , the Tigers who have home field advantage are more effective (because this is a job issue). On the contrary, in most cases, a male lion simply moves his mane to determine the outcome of the battle. Most of the cases where tigers kill lions in zoos are because the tiger thinks the lion has intruded into its territory. Territory disputes are common in the wild, especially when the tiger population was once prosperous. In other words, male lions fight more for their mates, while tigers fight more for territory. The frequency of their fights is almost the same. (3) Female tigers not only have to fight for territory but also for their cubs. Male cats have the habit of killing non-parent cubs. A single female tiger often fights with a larger male tiger to protect her cubs. , and a group of female lions simply surrendered when encountering this situation. Tigers live alone, and the female tiger raises her cubs independently, which shows that the tiger's survival ability is quite strong, while the female lion simply cannot raise her cubs independently. (4) Some people say that male lions will not measure the strength of their opponents and move forward bravely. In fact, this is a serious misunderstanding. The standard for male lions to measure their opponents is their manes. Lions with poor manes will choose to retreat automatically, while tigers are in the eyes of male lions. It is a lion with a poor mane, because male tigers do not have long manes, so male lions often think that tigers are not as good as themselves and can fight. Tigers, like other cats, are cautious because they live alone, and they will also carefully evaluate the strength of their opponents, because errors in evaluation will cause serious injuries and prevent them from preying. In other words, tigers will not fight uncertain battles, which raises a question: A lion fighting a tiger is a beast that can be defeated by the tiger, and this assessment is certainly more accurate than a human assessment. 4. Fighting skills: The bite force of cats is not the largest among beasts, but their claws are the strongest and their agility is the highest. Therefore, claws are weapons of victory, while teeth are only weapons of death. Claws combined with skill make cats the apex predators among beasts. (1) Tiger fights use palm strikes, which are actually a set of combination punches. They rely more on their skills and rarely get their heads together early. (2) Male lions are an exception among cats. The fight between them is actually about who is stronger. Due to the lack of limb strength and skills, the advantages of cats' claws and skills are almost abandoned. Male lions rely more on their body and strength, which is a pushing method, but we know that lions will not have an advantage over tigers in terms of size or strength. Tigers can use both palms, but lions cannot fully support the weight of their whole body due to strength problems in their hind legs. To fully exert their palm power, one front paw must be on the ground. (3) The mane has a certain protective effect on the male lion's throat, but tigers often fight with their forelimbs first, and then choke after gaining a considerable advantage. Because they rashly choke before gaining an advantage, in fact, Just irresponsible for your own throat. 5. Hunting skills Hunting skills can reflect the skills of beasts from the side. (1) Tigers usually hunt by sneak attack, followed by a short sprint, which requires stronger explosive power, because if the reaction is slow, the prey can easily escape, and chasing long distances is not a tiger's strength. To deal with bison, tigers jump on the back of the cow. The hold is tight, even on the larger adult Asian female elephants, while the lion can only pounce on the rear of the bison and be easily thrown off, and the Asian bison is much larger than the African bison. Lions usually hunt in groups, relying mainly on the force of the group to pounce on them. A lion may even die if it kills a bison alone. (2) Lions bite the neck of their prey, and the suffocation method is often sloppy. Lions often have the possibility of escaping the prey they obtained. On TV, 5 lions (including male lions) killed a bison and eventually escaped. In fact, this This reflects the lion's inability to kill prey effectively and quickly, and it actually causes the cheetah, which has almost no killing power, to escape after being seriously injured. This reflects the lion's killing rate. The success rate of killing a tiger is quite high, and the killing methods are also more diverse, including breaking the cervical vertebrae, biting the throat, biting the neck, etc. For smaller animals, it is almost a direct matter of breaking the cervical vertebrae. For tigers weighing more than 200kg, such as bison, bite the neck directly. Crushing the spinal cord is completely different from the method used by lions to deal with bison, but it is more lethal and is often fatal with one blow. The prey rarely has the possibility of escaping, because tigers cannot afford such mistakes, especially Siberian tigers. (3) The hunting success rate of lions is between 10-20% depending on the prey, and the success rate of tigers is about 5%. Although the success rate of lions is greater than that of tigers, it is very low on average. The food utilization efficiency is also not as good as that of tigers, which can only manage one meal, while tigers often hunt for a long time once they prey.

Lions are the only cats that rely on scavenging to survive alone, which is a reflection of the success rate of a single lion in hunting. (4) Both lions and tigers have the ability to hunt very large prey under extraordinary circumstances, such as lions against buffalo, giraffes, etc., and tigers against female elephants, bison, etc. But a single lion has little confidence in facing a huge bison, and may even be killed by a bison. Tigers, on the other hand, can hunt larger white-limbed bison. 6. Competition for survival. The main competitors in the living environment of lions are hyenas and leopards, while Bengal tigers are jackals and leopards, and Western tigers are brown bears and Amur leopards. (1) The life of a lone lion is extremely difficult. A lone male lion expelled from a pride of lions generally has to rely on corrosion to survive. (2) A single jackal is not as powerful as a hyena, but the size and resilience of a jackal group is much greater than that of a hyena group. Different groups of jackals can even unite to deal with Meng Hu. In the past, nearly 60 jackals have suffered heavy losses. The famous example of killing a female Bengal tiger at a price is composed of three different groups of jackals. (3) Brown bears are much larger beasts than Western tigers. Amur leopards have an extremely difficult time surviving under the pressure of Western tigers. However, leopards of the same species as Amur leopards live quite well under the suppression of lions. It can be seen that lions The ability of a group to stifle the development of leopards is far inferior to that of tigers, and leopards are therefore known as the most successful big cats in survival. Therefore, the competitive environment between tigers and lions can be said to be equally dangerous, but even so, excluding human factors, tigers are still very successful in living alone, while living alone means that lions become scavengers. No wonder they eat AIDS. 7. Examples of fighting battles The ligers and tigers we see now are all bred in captivity. To be precise, no conclusion can be drawn from this, but a reference conclusion can be drawn. (1) Captive beasts have degraded in ability compared to wild ones, but there is an important fact, which is that the more skilled the captive beasts are, the greater the losses will be. If the bears, which tend to be strong, and the cats, which tend to be skill-oriented, are raised in captivity from an early age, the cats will obviously suffer greater losses. The same is true for humans. If a newborn child is locked up from an early age, the unique human skills will be lost the most. Such a person can only be considered a human being from a biological perspective, but in fact he is no different from an idiot. . The lion lies in strength, while the tiger lies in skill. The loss will undoubtedly be greater than that of the Lions. But even so, the winning rate of captive tigers is higher than that of lions, let alone wild ligers. (2) There is also the fact that in all the current records or videos of lion-tiger fights, it is not surprising that a small tiger defeated a large lion, but there has never been a case of a small lion defeating a large tiger. (3) In the case of choosing a tiger-lion fight, male lions are generally chosen more often, while for tigers, they are almost always chosen regardless of male or female. In fact, female tigers are still quite physically different than male tigers. The difference is just not as big as that of the lion. But if you really choose, you might as well have a fight between a female lion and a male jaguar. But even so, female tigers also have cases of defeating male lions. Male tigers slaughter female lions, and female lions have no chance of winning against female tigers. 8. Evolutionary ligers come from the same ancestor. At present, it is impossible for wild ligers and tigers to meet, but in history, the territories of lions and tigers have overlapped, and finally retreated to the northwest corner of India (called Asiatic lions), and Bengal tigers are all over South Asia and Southeast Asia. Before human interference, tigers once had their footprints all over Eurasia, showing their tenacious adaptability from extreme cold to extreme heat, while lions could only be confined to the tropical and subtropical tropics. Biologically and geographically speaking, the tropical rainforest is the most fertile land on earth, and this is the survival zone of tiger tigers. In fact, it can also be compared through the competition between jaguars and cougars. It is an indisputable fact that jaguars are stronger than cougars. The jaguar occupies the central position of the South American tropical rainforest, while the cougar can only be on one side. After listing all the data, I found that lions lag behind tigers in almost all aspects. Wild lions without any physiological advantages can be said to be almost completely defeated by wild tigers. So what is the relationship between lions and tigers in actual battles? Naturally Tigers and lions generally do not come together in this state, but genetic analysis shows that African lions moved north from the African continent into the Arabian Peninsula and then into the South Asian subcontinent. Some geographers and zoologists have suggested that there were lions in Yunnan, my country, in ancient times. But why has it disappeared now? The fierceness of the tiger drove the lions out of the mountains and forests, where living conditions were comfortable and convenient, and drove them to the deserts and grasslands of northwest India, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa to suffer the pain of displacement. In terms of geographical distribution, tigers are based in Siberia and have spread all over Eurasia and the South Asian subcontinent, developing into Bengal tiger subspecies, Caucasian tiger subspecies and South China tiger subspecies. Only the sea prevents it from entering the Americas.

Some individuals crossed the South China Sea and entered the Indonesian Islands, developing into the Sumatran tiger subspecies. Showing tenacious adaptability from extreme cold to extreme heat, competition between ligers and ligers occurred in India in history. Although no written records were left, the African lions retreated to the northwest corner of India (called Asiatic lions), while the Bengal tigers are all over South Asia, Southeast Asia is the end result. Human beings are the most cruel. There have been many man-made fights between ligers and tigers in history: hundreds of fights between ligers and tigers were arranged in the Colosseum in ancient Rome, and the tigers won without exception. Scientists from the former Soviet Union experimented Let two adult hungry ligers of the same sex and body shape fight, and the tiger will win. There is a video of a lion-tiger fight in a pit that can be searched on the Internet (shot by a rich man who loves lions in the UK). In the video, the tiger died inexplicably under the advantage of the situation... The text description is that the tiger killed three male lions in a row and then died. Shot dead during the fight.. The truth about Gir’s liger-tiger fight: The original text that revealed the truth abroad found a translation: Gir’s liger-tiger fight (both wild) This is the battle between lions and tigers / Time: 1930 / Castle Film (originally 16mm Film) Asiatic lions and Bengal tigers finally meet... in the same hunting hole. The lion stepped forward and killed the tiger. This is the only video of a wild liger fighting in the wild. The tiger was eventually killed. A female tiger fights a male lion (truth: the tiger is not dead and the lion has no merit in battle). This is indeed a fight between a lion and a lion. The film was only 16mm, so most people only saw part of the deceptive content. It is very similar to the "big cage circus liger fight" scam, when the female tiger almost killed the male lion, and later reports stated (true) that the lion later died. The fight in the Gir Forest lasted for a total of 9 minutes. As the filming progressed, the tigress pushed the male lion down and rested. The tiger remains active and alert, in good condition and virtually unscathed. The female tiger pushed down the male lion with her sharp claws. When the lion retreated, the tiger walked around the field twice and lay down to rest out of exhaustion. Because the male lion cowered in front of the female tiger, they (presumably the hunters) pulled the tiger out of the pit, while the tiger was still alive and moving. (The next sentence "An also make no mistake about it" is a typical wrong sentence. I don't know how to translate it.) This is indeed a fight in the pit. The links to Chao.com are completely inaccurate and contain wrong, biased and misleading information. In the big cage, the female tiger almost killed the male lion. There is no evidence that the tigress was seriously injured during the Gir forest battle. I can tell you that there were indeed two wild ligers fighting in that clip. But there has never been a movie clip of a lion killing a tiger, and perhaps I should add that there were three times where a tiger killed a lion. Videos of lion-tiger fights in circuses that can be searched online also show what would have happened to the lions if someone had not saved their lives with water cannons. Scientists conducted a bold experiment called Tiger Roaring Africa (Tiger Eden), in which two artificially raised Bengal tigers were placed in a Rewilding training in Africa was very successful - it was able to complete the tasks that cheetahs can accomplish by chasing antelopes (lions are surrounded by groups), chasing ostriches (surprisingly, the speed of ostriches is 72KM/H), and escaping by swimming. The monkeys (the tiger is a very good swimmer and can even dive to 3 meters)... It’s so exciting!]