this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Sure I'd rather face off against one lion than one tiger, but with lions it's not gonna be just one.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago

I asked my house cat. He said he can beat them both.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lions regularly fight other big cats, mostly lions. Tigers do not. My money is on Leo.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Also lions pack hunt and will organize for defense purposes. Tigers stay solitary unless they are mating, usually.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Nah, lion is king cause he naps 21 hours a day.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

We used to think that they nap most of the day because we couldn’t see what lions did at night. With new camera technology, we can now. Male lions are, maybe, a little more badass than we thought. Their job is basically to fight other lions and hyenas and shit and patrol their territory. They do this at night. Lionesses are still super badass and maybe even more badass than we originally thought, too. I guess what I’m saying is that lions are just badass. The difference is that lions are social creatures while, as far as we can tell, tigers are more solitary, so there’s a comparison issue there. Male lions do, at least, do a bit more for the pride aside from sleeping and fucking, like some of the old documentaries I remember made it look like. That’s just how they are during the day, but I mean, they’re cats. They do a lot of shit a night we didn’t really have a good handle on until recently. Male lions are big and muscly and powerful not for no reason. They have to have that in case something else wants to fuck around with their pride and find out. The lionesses are the providers, the male lions are the protectors that stay at home and protect the territory. We like to try to fit things into our own ways of understanding, but they just do it different. It’s how they evolved to survive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

Yeah lions are pretty cool but have you considered the fire ant?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Lion is king because he's social. You can't be a king without subjects. Tigers are the ronin of the jungle. Lions are the king of the savanna.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Lions fights other cats in their pride. How often do Tigers even run into another tiger? So experience goes to the lion.

Tigers kill by grabbing the throat with their teeth and letting the prey suffocate. Lion has a big wirey mane around his neck - something evolution gave him for... Fighting other big cats.

Yes the tiger is bigger, but the lion has the tools and experience to overcome that small size difference.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How often do Tigers even run into another tiger?

All the time. While tigers lead solitary lifestyles, they're not devoid of socialization. Territories overlap and lead to peaceful interactions and conflicts over borders. Sometimes they even cooperate in hunting or live together, though that's less frequent. The nature of their interactions is mostly dictated by sexual relations and the ratio of tigers to prey.

This is not meant to contribute to the tiger vs lion issue.

I also think it's interesting to note that while the mane serves a practical purpose, it's also wildly oversized as a result of sexual selection.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Sweet baby cheesus I love me some mane. Ooh, yeah, baby girl, wear that mane!

I may be confused.

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[–] [email protected] 120 points 2 days ago (14 children)

does NOT even live in the jungle

Fwiw, that's definitely not a requirement. The King of Australia doesn't live in Australia, either.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (8 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

I didn't vote for him!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Also, jungles' original meaning is just "uninhibited." So vast plains counted, too.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Jungle

1776, "dense growth of trees and other tangled vegetation," such as that of some regions in India, from Hindi jangal "desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground," from Sanskrit jangala-s "arid, sparsely grown with trees," a word of unknown origin.

Source: Etymonline

I can't tell if you meant to say "uninhibitated" or "uninhabited." I get the impression you meant the latter, which would be in line with the idea of "desert" or "wasteland."

Either way, the history of the word jungle reveals that its root might have applied to what we'd call today a savanna, which is where lions live. So, the title "King of the Jungle" could have made sense for lions at some point.

[–] embed_me 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Actually the Indian Gir Lion does live in jungle/forest. As for the history of the word, the present meaning (forest) might've been used for longer by now (in India) than the old meaning.

And funnily enough, the Hindi word "sher" can mean either lion or tiger, although they do have a specific word for tiger, "bagh". And we do have the same title/phrase in Hindi which could mean either lion or tiger is the king of the jungle. I personally never thought it was the tiger because when I was a child, the Lion King had already been released.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That's so interesting! I guess the meme is moot if the question is asked in Hindi, haha.

I get the connection with the Lion King also. Speaking of animation from childhood, I'm now remembering an episode of Rugrats where the phrase "King of the Jungle" became an argument. Except on that show, the argument was over whether the title belonged to Tarzan or to King Kong.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That whole "king of the jungle" bullshit was started by white people that couldn't even point to where a jungle was on a map.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Asiatic lions used to live in jungles and because of them king of the jungle started . They're close to extinction and confined to a small sanctuary that is still surprise, surprise still a jungle. Now since African Lions are the more prominent species and they show up in discovery/nat geo the most, people think lion is a savanna animal. Lions are very versatile and can live in many biomes.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 days ago

Lions in the wild are so inbred, they might as well be royalty.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Something that was getting shared a lot once (not too sure how true) that the whole "lion is the king of the jungle" thing was pushed by the Church in Europe to counter the pagan cult of the bear. The bear was basically worshiped as an embodiment of strength, saying that he's not the strongest tarnished his image.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The lion is going to bring his girls and they're going to tear the tiger to pieces.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (8 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I thought it was common knowledge that the S tier wild cat is the jaguar

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The housecat wins. They were the only ones smart enough to attach themselves to humans, thereby ensuring they'd be prolific all over the world. They can be assholes to us and we STILL clean their poop and feed them!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Hey, they have evolved a parasite that lives in our brains and feeds us dopamine when we interact with cats. They are using highly sophisticated bio weapons. We never stood a chance.

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