Tiger versus Lion

Between truth and myths

Lion and Tiger Fighting by James Ward, 1797

Historically, the comparative merits of the tiger versus the lion have been a popular topic of discussion by hunters, naturalists, artists, and poets, and continue to inspire the popular imagination in the present day.[1][2][3] Lions and tigers have competed in the wild where their ranges have overlapped. They have also interbred, producing tigons or ligers as offspring. The most common reported circumstance of their meeting is in captivity, either deliberately or accidentally.

In the circuses of Ancient Rome, exotic beasts were commonly pitted against each other. The contest of the lion against the tiger was a classic pairing and the betting usually favoured the tiger. A mosaic in the House of the Faun in Pompeii shows a fight between a lion and a tiger. Titus, the Roman Emperor, had Bengal tigers compelled to fight the African lions, and the tigers always beat the lions. A tiger that belonged to the King of Oude killed thirty lions, and destroyed another after being transferred to the zoological garden in London. A British officer who resided many years at Sierra Leone saw many lion and tiger fights, and the tiger usually won. At the end of the 19th century, the Gaekwad of Baroda arranged a fight between a Barbary lion and a Bengal tiger before an audience of thousands. The Gaekwad favoured the lion, and as a result had to pay 37,000 rupees as the lion was mauled by the tiger.

fonte:wikipedia