Bear would win easy - for one thing, gorillas generally are herbivores and don't fight much, for another, polar bears are much much bigger as has been pointed out.
Now, say you replaced your gorilla with a rhino - now you're talking a more even match up! On the plus side, a rhino weighs a ton or more, so the bear is at a bit of a disadvantage there, and the rhino does have a very thick hide. The bear still has claws, and is much more agile as well, so it'd be one mother of a fight.
I wonder if the Romans - who used to fight animals against each other in the colloseum as well as humans vs humans and humans vs animals - ever fought a brown/black bear against a rhino? (interlude while I google) Hmm, nothing definitive, but this guy thinks waaaaaaaayyyyyy too much about who would win a lion-tiger fight: http://indrajit.wordpress.com/category/lion-vs-tiger/
Whaaaaat? Gorillas fight all the time. That's the way the silverback becomes the silverback is by beating his rivals into the dust.
Also primates are pretty much 100% solid muscle. The average chimpanzee, even though weighing much less than the average human, is about 4-5 times stronger.
But it rarely goes after a bull walrus, it preys on the children and weak ones. I know there's a youtube video of a polar bear killing a bull, but that's a rarity
Not as rare as a polar bear vs gorilla! hah
I was just using it as a simple example. It is rare but it does happen. Polar bears are extremely strong. He would just need to grab on and that would be the end. I don't think the gorilla would even come close to matching up.
I don't think is even a contest. You take the largest Polar Bear reported (10 ft long, 2210 lb) and compare it to the largest Silverback reported (6 feet tall, 500 lb).
Polar Bear would simply destroy the Silverback.
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Originally Posted by peter12
Whaaaaat? Gorillas fight all the time. That's the way the silverback becomes the silverback is by beating his rivals into the dust.
For one, that doesn't compare to a polar bear that fights all the time to kill its prey - it's not like it's silverback WWF where every week a new challenger appears. For two, most "fights" are over quickly as the weaker/intimidated party backs off or submits - very rarely are fights to the death.
I think some people are overestimating gorillas and underestimating polar bears. Sure, gorillas are strong, but if they don't knock each other out with one punch, how are they supposed to be knocking out a 700 kg bear? Just because one could launch my head clear to Edmonton for the hobos to puzzle over, doesn't mean a 3/4 ton killing machine is going to do more than shake its head and then eviscerate the poor ape.
PS When I was reading about lions vs tigers, there was mention of how lone tigers kill gaurs, brown bears, crocodiles and occasionally full-grown freakin' elephants. Tigers rule.
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This poll should have been public so we could see who those 22 people were that voted for the Gorilla. Give me a break! Boooo! It's an insult to those who are passionate about pretend animal fights, especially polar bear vs gorilla ones.
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For one, that doesn't compare to a polar bear that fights all the time to kill its prey - it's not like it's silverback WWF where every week a new challenger appears. For two, most "fights" are over quickly as the weaker/intimidated party backs off or submits - very rarely are fights to the death.
I think some people are overestimating gorillas and underestimating polar bears. Sure, gorillas are strong, but if they don't knock each other out with one punch, how are they supposed to be knocking out a 700 kg bear? Just because one could launch my head clear to Edmonton for the hobos to puzzle over, doesn't mean a 3/4 ton killing machine is going to do more than shake its head and then eviscerate the poor ape.
PS When I was reading about lions vs tigers, there was mention of how lone tigers kill gaurs, brown bears, crocodiles and occasionally full-grown freakin' elephants. Tigers rule.
Don't insult my animal Battle Royale intelligence! I voted polar bear, dammit!
This poll should have been public so we could see who those 22 people were that voted for the Gorilla. Give me a break! Boooo! It's an insult to those who are passionate about pretend animal fights, especially polar bear vs gorilla ones.
I wanted to know what it was like to be a Canucks fan. It sucks.
Bear would win easy - for one thing, gorillas generally are herbivores and don't fight much, for another, polar bears are much much bigger as has been pointed out.
Now, say you replaced your gorilla with a rhino - now you're talking a more even match up! On the plus side, a rhino weighs a ton or more, so the bear is at a bit of a disadvantage there, and the rhino does have a very thick hide. The bear still has claws, and is much more agile as well, so it'd be one mother of a fight.
I wonder if the Romans - who used to fight animals against each other in the colloseum as well as humans vs humans and humans vs animals - ever fought a brown/black bear against a rhino? (interlude while I google) Hmm, nothing definitive, but this guy thinks waaaaaaaayyyyyy too much about who would win a lion-tiger fight: http://indrajit.wordpress.com/category/lion-vs-tiger/
Rhinos also have awful vision, so it would certainly be interesting.
But i don't see the rhino coming out on top.
If we're talking about a fight to the death, I think the thing to look at is the scenarios in which one animal can realistically kill the other.
Polar bear: polar bears are very good at fatal attacks: they have strong, compact arms that are designed to crush bones and skulls with a single swat, and a claws that result in deep penetration wounds. Against a gorilla, it's unlikely that such a swat would knock out a gorilla: they have massive and strong skulls. But they're definitely vulnerable to having limb bones broken by such attacks, and of course very vulnerable to flesh wounds.
The second killing technique that the polar bear has is its jaws. Again, it's questionable whether the polar bear could actually crush a gorilla skull, but it can probably cause enough bleeding to kill it pretty quickly. As well, a polar bite on a neck will be almost immediately lethal. A polar bear bite on any limb is going to disable that limb very quickly.
Gorilla: Gorillas fight for troop dominance, but much of the fighting is of a non-lethal variety. Even against other species, gorillas fight only for protection; leopards have been known to hunt gorillas, and gorillas survive these attacks usually through troop tactics. Defending yourself against a leopard is completely different from actually killing another animal, especially one as powerful as a polar bear.
The gorilla has insanely powerful jaws, but they're designed for crushing vegetation, not for tearing through flesh. Despite sharp-looking front teeth, the gorilla's teeth are designed for crushing; the sharp teeth are there for causing pain in non-lethal fights. While a gorilla bite would hurt and remove a chunk of flesh, it would take several bites for a gorilla to get close to anything lethal. If it got its jaws around a bone it could probably crush it, but the thick mass of fat and muscle around a polar-bear's limbs would make it difficult for the gorilla to get such a bite.
The gorilla would be able to beat smaller animals just on the strength of swats and grappling. But against a polar bear, neither are going to have much effect. It won't be able to grab a limb and snap it in two, or twist the bear's neck.
Pretty much the only scenario I can imagine where a gorilla would actually be able to kill a polar bear is if it was able to get on the bear's back and repeatedly bite the neck until it's able to get its jaws around the spine. By comparison, there's probably about a dozen scenarios where the polar bear could win, through using its jaws to quickly disable the gorilla's limbs, getting its jaws around the neck, or inflicting serious flesh wounds with its claws.
Gorillas aren't designed to be lethal killing machines. Polar bears are.
Last edited by octothorp; 03-29-2009 at 03:46 PM.
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