Who would be the strongest to win the battle?
It’s very impressive that both animals have remarkable powers and are considered among the strongest animal species.
Both Grizzly Bears and Siberian Tigersare among the most famous animals that spark the attention of many for their predator skills and robust body structure.
Both animal predators are at the top of the food chain. Therefore, the Siberian tiger and the grizzly bear are the undeniable masters of their natural habitats.
Let’s get to know the Siberian Tiger first. As suggested by its name the Siberian Tiger is a tiger species that lives in Eurasia and especially the Siberian region.
There are 6 existing tiger subspecies in the world that includes Sumatran, S. China, Bengal, Indochinese, and Malayan tigers.
The Siberian tiger is the biggest tiger subspecies.
Grizzlies are a subspecies of brown bears.
Wondering why they are called like that? The word “grizzly” refers to the looks of the fur on the back of adult bears which is a light warm brown with white edges, making it appear “grizzled” or grayish.
Their Size & Description
Being the biggest of all tiger species, the Siberian Tiger is an impressive predator.
The male tiger is 11 feet or 3.3 meters long, from head to tail. and weighs around 390 pounds or 176 Kg.
Female tigers are a tad smaller, measuring 8.8 feet or 2.7 meters long and weighing around 260 pounds or 118 kilos on average.
The Siberian tiger has demonstrated some environmental adaptations to survive in the cold temperature of its natural habitats, such as a dense layer of fat and fur and fewer dark stripes compared to other tigers.
It also has a reddish or yellowish complexion, with dark, long and broadly scattered dark brown stripes.
The belly, chest, interior limbs, and the area surrounding its neck are white.
Grizzly bears are among the biggest existing carnivores aka meat-eaters.
They measure 3.3 to 9 feet long (1 to 2.8 meters) and weigh around 800 pounds or 363 kilos. Pretty big, right?
Grizzly bears have a “plated” and hollow face, with short rounded ears and a big shoulder curve.
Their coloring ranges from light tan to dark brown.
Their eyesight is not the best and they are infamous for attacking humans without any reason.
Their Natural Range and Habitat
The big feline resides in a much smaller territory than it has occupied in the past.
Most Siberian tigers are found in Eastern Russia, Siberia, and N. China. The highest population numbers of these tigers are seen in the Sikhote-Alin Mountain series.
The main habitats of the Siberian tiger are snow forests, boreal forests, and birch forests.
They can survive in extreme climates. Winters in the region are freezing cold and snowfall is exceptionally high during the cold season.
Most Siberian tigers inhabit isolated mountainous areas, far from human presence.
A great part of their habitat selection also has to do with the availability of food.
On the other hand, Grizzly bears are scattered throughout the whole Western U.S, South U.S, and Mexico, including the Great Plains region and rivers in desert areas.
A considerable number of grizzly bears also live in Alaska and N. Canada. However, in Southern Canada, the populations of grizzly bears are very low.
Grizzlies have a preference for open regions like coastlines, rivers, and tundras.
Unlike other social creatures, they live isolated for the most part.
Occasionally, they will meet other grizzlies outside the mating time and stand or move along with each other but without much interaction between them.
Their Diet
The Siberian Tiger is a very skilled hunter with a great ability to adapt to its surroundings.
While they usually hunt during nighttime, you can also see them at times hunting prey during the daytime.
They are able to travel a large distance in their habitat to seek food.
They also tend to go for larger prey such as wild boars and elks.
Once they get closer to their prey, they use their robust jaws to get into action and put down their prey.
They can put down animals that are way bigger than them.
Grizzly bears are omnivores which means they eat both meat and plants
Their diet consists of roots, berries, grasses, and forbs.
If they are looking for prey, they feed on fatty fish, rodents, squirrels, moose, elk, and deers.
They are especially skilled at catching the young of these species.
Occasionally, they can attack domestic farm animals like cattle and sheep and inflict economic damage to farmers.
Their Behavior
The Siberian or Amur tiger is very solitary and defensive of its territory, often marking trees and rocks.
Although currently there are only a few hundred Siberian tigers in their distribution area, they have the benefit of enjoying broad regions available for hunting, something that they typically do at night.
This tiger is famous for its agility and power, which has contributed to its scary reputation and fear-evoking nature.
However, the Siberian tiger typically avoids approaching humans, even though it can attack them if they are injured, sick or lying on the ground.
Grizzlies communicate using noises, movements, and smells.
They grunt, growl, or moan, especially when the mother bears are communicating with their offspring or during the mating period when male bears compete against each other for the chance to mate with fertile females.
Grizzly bears also rub their bodies against tree trunks to scratch them and make their presence known to other bears.
Now, going back to the hot question: who would win a battle if these two beasts came together?
Both beasts are hunters found on the top of the food chain, but it’s naturally impossible for them to come across each other as they live in vastly different areas.
They are also natural killers with several killing tools at their hands.
The Siberian Tiger is known as having unrivaled strength in the Russian Far East.
A mature grizzly bear is naturally bulkier and more powerful than the Siberian tiger.
Their Jaws
The grizzly’s robust haw shuts with a biting force of 1250 PSI whereas the tiger’s force reaches 950 PSI, which is strong enough to tear apart a bone.
However, the tiger’s teeth are thinner and longer, which means that it can bite its food deeply and cause deeper wounds.
Their Claws
This is a major weakness of the grizzly bear.
Their claws are not as sharp as the Siberian tigers but they have a high smashing power from the strike itself–which could put things down instantly.
Such a brutal hit could simply break a tiger in two.
Tigers also behave in stealth mode.
They can walk discreetly without making any noise, patrol, and attack their prey from the edgiest angle and at the most random moment.
One thing that not many people know is that bears are very tolerable of wounds.
While the Siberian tiger has an edge over agility and pace, bears are the powerful tanks of the animal kingdom.
Their skin, fur, and muscles are so dense and deep that they are hard to wound.
Sometimes they can even survive or be able to fight bullet strikes, even if bullets have entered their internal organs.
Their Battle Strategies
The first thing that a threatened bear will likely do is to stand up to appear as big and threatening as possible.
On the other hand, the tiger has one target in mind–to bite through the neck of its rival.
This is the most common way a tiger kills.
But, locking onto the bear’s neck is hard considering the dense amount of muscle and fat it holds.
We can’t tell for sure but we’d bet on the tiger to win as it can kill more swiftly.
Tigers only eat meat but the meat of animals they kill, which is why they have more powerful hunting attributes. They are also smarter than the grizzly bears. So based on these, we believe the tiger has the highest odds of winning.