This thread is not about who is better at killing or fighting skills, but just a comparison of raw strength between the animals.
For example I asked hunter which of the two would have greater physical strength:
An American Black Bear or a Tiger?
He thought that the black bear would be stronger at equal weights.
Weight parity is not the way to compare girth or strength.
shaggysasquatch.proboards.com/thread/326/equal-head-body-length-hbl Equal head-and-body length vs weight parity
*The only purpose of a weight-parity face-off debate is to give the big cat an unfair advantage. By nature, a bear has greater girth than a big cat. Each Quadruped mammalian predator has his own basic advantages and disadvantages. 'Mother Nature' gave the brown bear a girth, weight, and strength advantage over the big cats while in turn giving the cats an edge in speed, agility, and long canines.
No small wonder that the big cat fanboys insist on weight-parity which deprives the bear of his natural girth and weight advantage. This is the only way to give the big cat a "fighting chance" against a bear. For this reason, I prefer a face-off debate with each animal according to his typical size in the wild. On the animal face-off topics, the best and most honest contest is pitting each hypothetical animal according to its realistic typical size at equal maturity and same sex - accordingly with each specific species. The alternatives are either a weight-parity contest ( self-explanatory ) or size-parity ( equal head-and-body length ).
In the past, I have been accused of changing my mind on my own thoughts from topic-to-topic. I believe the term is "wishy washy". NO. The truth is, as we learn, we grow. As we learn new facts or take the time to better scrutinize those facts, we must sometimes readjust our own thoughts and opinions. I have known a great many big cat fans who, no matter what data is shown to them, their conclusions never change. ( a learning disability? ).
Since there is not one single confirmed case of a tiger ever killing a bear equal in weight to himself, in considering a lion or a tiger vs a full-grown male brown bear at weight-parity ( IMO ) brown bear wins this fight 6 out of 10 - regardless of the fact that at weight-parity, in reality, the cat is bigger than the bear.
Equal head-and-body length:
Of all the methods we can come up with to compare one species to another for the purpose of comparing girth or strength fairly, this is ( IMO ) without a doubt the best.
However, it is not fool-proof. Example, when we compare a brown bear with a tiger in this method, we are actually giving the big cat a slight advantage. The cat, having a shorter neck and a shorter muzzle, thus has several inches advantage - which is too little for any complaints.
Even a snake is not ( as some people claim ) just a head with a tail. There is a point where torso ends and tail begins. The bear has been called, by some bear experts of the past, "the strongest animal of his size". I'm not at all certain that this holds true, but a bear compared with any animal at equal head-and-body length is certainly debatable. Especially a brown bear.
I will add to this; Big Cat fans nearly always balk at the idea of a size-parity ( equal head-and-body length ) face-off - big cat vs bear. Their complaint; "its an unfair contest."
Actually, it is the most fair animal face-off contest possible. Like two men in the ring ( boxing, wrestling, etc. ) each standing 6 feet tall. But, we must remember that this is species vs species. We must also remember that the objective of the contest is to determine which animal species has the greater advantages to defeat the other in a face-to-face confrontation. At equal head-and-body length, one will have greater girth, providing greater weight and ( most often ) greater strength than the other.
We must also remember that the objective of an animal face-off is NOT to manipulate their size to produce two animals of an equal chance of a victory, but rather an honest assessment of each species. In doing this, when comparing two very different animals, in nearly every contest, one will greatly overshadow the other. In this case; big cat vs brown bear, the bear greatly overshadows the lion or tiger.
Coincidentally, in the Russian taiga, a typical adult male Amur tiger and a typical adult male Ussuri brown bear are similar in head-and-body length. Therefore, a fight between an Amur tiger and an Ussuri brown bear is typically a fair fight, each equal in body-length and in bipedal height. They each are equipped with the advantages provided to his particular species. The tiger retains his speed, his agility, his sharp deeply-hooked claws, and his long canine teeth. The bear retains the advantages of girth, weight, and strength.
The brown bear's greater girth also provides superior durability. In a fair fight between a prime male tiger and a prime male brown bear at equal HBL, I estimate that the bear will defeat the tiger in a face-to-face encounter roughly 19 out of every 20 fights. But, if the tiger were to ambush the bear, then my estimation comes down to the bear defeating the tiger roughly 8 out of 10.
