Throughout history,
it has happened several times that these two giant felines meet
accidentally or intentionally.
In the circuses of Ancient Rome,
exotic beasts were commonly pitted against each other, including lions and tigers.
A mosaic in the House of the Faun in Pompeii
shows a fight between a lion and a tiger.
There are different accounts of which of these animals gained the victory.
Although lions and tigers can be kept together in harmony in captivity,
fatal conflicts have also been recorded.
It was not always clear which species regularly beat the other.
Now let's look at some cases:
1. Roman Emperor Titus had Bengal tigers compelled to fight African lions,
and the tigers always beat the lions.
2. In July 1808, Sylvanus Urban said that
Mr. Bolton had a friend who claimed to have seen a fight between the lion and tiger
at a circus in Verona.
Though the tiger had attacked first, it yielded to the stronger lion.
3. In 1830, a tiger attacked a lion at a menagerie in Turin, Rome.
Despite having attacked first, the lion got it on its back,
and used its jaws to hold the tiger's throat. The tiger died after that.
4. Clark (1838) said that a British officer, who resided many years in Sierra Leone,
saw many fights between lions and tigers, and that the tiger 'universally' won.
5. A newspaper Harper's Weekly in 1859,
mentioning the same 10 minute fight in London
where a tiger named 'Gunga', who previously belonged to the King of Oude,
allegedly killed nearly 30 lions and after its arrival in England,
making keepers spectators to a fight where a lion was killed in 10 minutes.
A 1857 London newspaper talking about the same incident,
reported the lion was a "very fine lion, six or seven years old".
One source stated the lion was in confinement (captivity) for 3 years,
implying the lion would be 3 years old at a minimum.
A newspaper talks about Gunga was name was also "Nina Shahib",
who before the fight took place with the lion in London,
had attacked its keeper, and the keeper with a crowbar severely injured the tiger,
blinding him in one eye, meaning the tiger would have been blind fighting the lion.
The two animals were found fighting each other
in which the keepers made fruitless efforts to part the two animals.
Towards the end of the fight the lion gained a brief advantage
by which point the tiger while on his back
with swift strikes using his back legs tore open the lion's stomach.
The lion had died after that.
The tiger "Nina Shahib" was thought to have been mortally injured.
However, the tiger did recover
and became one of the biggest attractions of the establishment.
6. In 1882, a fight started in a menagerie
and the tiger fixed his fangs into the lion's throat with blood gushing out,
killing the lion.
7. According to the Gettysburg Compiler and The Baltimore Sun (1899),
towards the end of the 19th century in India, the Gaekwad of Baroda,
that is Sayajirao III, arranged a fight in an amphitheater,
between a Barbary lion called 'Atlas',
from the Atlas Mountains between Algeria and Morocco,
and a man-eating Bengal tiger from the Indian region of Shimla,
both large and hungry with their diets reduced before the fight,
before an audience of thousands.
The tiger was more than 10 feet (3.0 meters) long,
over 4 feet (120 centimeters) feet at the shoulder,
had strong shoulders and long teeth and claws, and was agile.
The lion looked taller at the head than the tiger, and had a large mane, legs and paws.
In the fight, both cats sustained injuries,
and although the tiger sometimes retreated from Atlas, it would come back to fight it,
and in the end, managed to scratch Atlas to death,
though Atlas pushed it off in one final move before dying.
8. At the Coney Island animal show in 1909,
a performing lion attacked a chained tiger by leaping through the air,
landing on the tiger's back.
Though hampered by the heavy neck chain fastened to the iron bars of the arena,
the tiger was more than a match for the lion and mangled it to death.
9. In 1911, Bostock gave an account of a lion killing a tiger.
10. In May 1914, at New York's Bronx Zoo,
the barrier between the cages of Rajah, an eight-year-old Bengal tiger,
and Huerte, a Nubian lion which was two or three years old,
and had been sick for some time, got opened in an "unaccountable manner."
For the first few minutes, the more agile Huerte appeared to be winning,
but when it aimed for its injured opponent's neck,
about an hour into the fight, Rajah aimed for its nape.
Not only did Rajah manage to bite Huerte's nape, but it also broke Huerte's back,
thus slaughtering it.
11. In 1934, a fully grown African lion killed a mature Bengal tiger
a short time after these circus animals were unloaded from the train,
before trainers could separate them.
12. Bert Nelson (1938) said that in Chicago,
when 20 lions and tigers were mixed together for an act at a circus,
a fight occurred, lasting for about 10 minutes.
No fatalities were mentioned,
but Nelson said that order was 'restored' when the tigers used escape doors to flee.
13. At the South Perth Zoo, 1949, in a three-minute fight between a lion and a tiger,
the lion killed the tiger.
The fight occurred when the tiger put his head through a connecting slide.
The lion caught the tiger by the throat, and, dragging it through the opening,
killed it before the keepers arrived.
14. An Indian prince organized a filmed fight in a deep pit
in the compound of his palace.
The lion had killed the tiger, according to Kailash Sankhala (1978).
15. In September 2010, a Bengal tiger at the Ankara Zoo
passed through a gap, between its cage and that of a lion,
and killed it with a single paw swipe.
"The tiger severed the lion's jugular vein in a single stroke with its paw,
leaving the animal dying in a pool of blood," officials said.
16. Herne (1855) mentioned that in the Indian jungle between the village of Elaw,
he and his party, which included locals, heard a tiger's roar.
Pursuing it, they caught a glimpse of it, but by that time, the tiger had attacked a local.
It disappeared with the victim, and after pursuing it for about 50 yds (150 ft),
they heard the roar of a lion, and besides it, sounds
which suggested that it was in a struggle with the tiger, such as growls.
The party not only managed to see the lion and tiger rolling about in their battle,
after going through bushes, but also the man who fell victim to the tiger.
The tiger was about the same size as the lion, but more agile.
As for the lion, it used greater strength, and its mane,
which was somewhat deeper than those of its bigger African cousins,
could protect its head from the tiger's claws,
though not other parts of its body, such as the back.
They were as determined and brave as each other, but the lion endured.
It caught the tiger's throat, turned it on its back,
and killed it by clawing its abdomen open.
The lion was thus hailed as the "King of Beasts."
We see that: although the tiger is appreciated more than the lion,
it does not always win against the lion, even when the two are the same size.
This is similar to when two football teams play against each other
the weaker team does not always lose to the stronger team.
Lions are still famous for their bravery in battle.
In addition, it also possesses enough weapons to be able to kill a tiger,
so the lion's victory does not surprise me.
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