Which animal would win a fight between a grizzly bear and a silver–backed gorilla?
Which animal would win a fight between a grizzly bear and a silver–backed gorilla?
Mike Trow: As it happens, I have quite a bit of experience of this sort of thing — certainly enough to see that the basic physical stats on these two titans of the animal world suggest that the bear has a flying start. The grizzly (Ursus arctos horribilis) can weigh up to 600lbs, when standing can be 8 foot or more tall, and can sprint over short distances at a pretty impressive pace. The silverback, on the other hand, comes in at 350lbs and only 5ft 8in tall, but it has an impressive 7ft 8in armspan. These musclebound primates can work equally well on the ground and in trees and know a fair bit about fighting due to having to ward off love rivals on a regular basis.
Much would depend on the terrain. If the fight took place on a level piece of ground, the bear is likely to take the honours. First of all, although they do not have the same muscle to weight ratio of the gorilla, the grizzly is immensely powerful and has incredibly strong claws that can slash and puncture his opponent. He also has a large mouth filled with fucking big teeth that can rip through the toughest old moose hide — the pelt of a gorilla shouldn’t be difficult to get through. Also, the bear’s own hide is very thick — grizzlies need to be able to deal with the cold of the North American winter, so a thick fur coat coupled with an insulating layer of fat means that the gorilla will have his work cut out getting through to the flesh. The bear is naturally extremely aggressive, and as every sad gun–slinging redneck hunter will tell you, ‘He ain’t afeard o’ nuthin, and the only way you’s a gunna kill him’s with a rifle bullet ‘tween the eyes.’
The things the gorilla has going for it are it’s primate’s intelligence, incredible muscle power and ferocious speed. If it can manoeuvre itself out of the way of the bear’s teeth and claws, then it could maybe inflict enough damage to disable the bear before ripping out its jugular to create a crowd–pleasing bloodfest. When you think of David Attenborough frolicking with mountain gorillas, just remember that if he’d pissed them off he would have come back pretty much a limbless torso — the power of a big gorilla means he could literally rip your arm off without dropping his banana.
So there you have it. The bear is the most likely winner — but change the terrain and climate and things could be reversed. The sheer heat and humidity of a dense African rainforest would be such that, on its home turf, the gorilla could easily turn the tables.
