Lion vs Wolf: Who’s Going to Win This Fight?

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When someone asks “Who’s going to win between lion and wolf?” maybe the answer will be divided into two: the ones who think that lion will win and vice versa. Before we argue about lion vs wolf, maybe we should take a look at their size first.

Lion vs Wolf Comparison

	Lion	Wolf
Weight	Southern Africa lion 186,6 kg (male), 126,9 kg (female) East Africa lion 174,9 kg (male), 119,5 kg (female)	North American wolf: 25 kg European wolf: 38.5 kg Indian and Arabian wolf: 25 kg
Tail length	90 to 105 cm (male), 70 to 100 cm (female)	29 to 50 cm
Head-body length	170 to 250 cm (male), 140 to 175 cm (female)	105 to 160 cm

If we compare lion vs wolf based on sizes, of course lion would win. In October 1973, a lion was killed on the area of Mucsso, but surprisingly the length of the lion is nearly 3.6 m. This number marked the biggest size of lion until now. 

Another record measurement comes from the outer part of Hectorspruit, SA in the mid 1936. A hunter shot a male lion which weighed 313 kg. There was also a male lion which weighed in at 272 kg near Mount Kenya.

The Wolf Anatomy

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Excepting certain large breeds of domestic dog, the largest extant member of the Canidae is the gray wolf. This type of wolf size and weight can greatly vary worldwide. And it tends to proportionally increase with latitude as predicted by rule from Bergmann. 

The wolves of Canada and Alaska sometimes can weighting 3 until 6 times more than the wolves from South Asian and Middle Eastern cousins. In any given population, female wolf typically weigh 5 until 10 lbs less than male. If there is wolf that weight over 54 kg, then it is uncommon. 

Although this wolf have been recorded in Canada, Alaska, and former Soviet Union, but it is still rare to see until now. The heaviest gray wolf recorded in North America and it was weighed 79.4 kg and killed on 70 Mile River in east-central Alaska on July 12. In Eurasia, the heaviest wolf killed after World War II in Ukraine’s Poltavskij Region and it weighed 86 kg.

The Lion Anatomy

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The second largest feline is the lion. While, the tiger ranks first place. Many people would say lion would win in the battle of lion vs wolf. The lion can bring down and kill any large prey with its strong jaw, powerful legs, and long canine teeth which 8 cm in length. Lions are, of course, carnivores and their roar can be hard up to more than 4 miles away. 

Lion’s main prey is giraffe, zebra, wild hogs, antelope, buffalo, and wildebeest. Moreover, lions can also eat the flesh of dead animal. A lion will sneaks up slowly on its prey and then they will pauses after they gets close enough to the target. After that, they will crouches and hides until the prey is closer.

The Winner of This Battle Is..

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There is one thing which make wolf win in lion vs wolf based on their characteristics. Wolf usually track its prey with its keen sense of smell. Wolf can detect prey by tracking the smell up to around 275 meters. Wolves also has powerful legs just like lion. They also has long legs and strong stamina. 

These characteristics allow then to spend more than 8 hours a day in search of food and on the move. They usually travel during dawn dusk which is the temperatures is cooling down. They also tend to travel during the night times. Wolves can travel 8 km per hour, but they can run up to 40 km per hour.

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Lions, especially mountain lions, are ambush and solitary predators which select their prey opportunistically (example: of any health) in areas where threes, slopes, borders, or other cover can give them an advantage. 

Meanwhile, wolves are social and coursing predators. They will move with their flocks during the hunting because their pace can be the disadvantage for the prey in the open space. Hence, lion and wolf utilize and inhabit different ecological niches. 

This allows them to temporally and spatially coexist. Nevertheless, in the absence of wolf, lions will utilize areas will be assumed traditionally to be the sole dominion of running wolves. This fact suggest that while wolf sympatric with lion, but they limit lions, especially in mountain area.

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Another fact is, in mountain where lion and wolf lives together, wolf kills lion. In most interactions between those species, wolves are considered as the dominant competitors.

Take for instance, there is a study from the Hornocker Institute about lions in the area of Northern Yellowstone which led by Dr. Toni Ruth. And the research discovered that wolves kills the remains of 3 mountain lions. This research shows that the idea of wild lions may murder the wolf is contentious.

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But a new research from Liz Bradley, one of the researches that also concern about the wolf, shows that she has found new thing. Her research reports that in lion vs wolf, five wolves were killed by lions in the last three years. All bearing the same characteristic which is canine punctures in their skulls. 

But it is betrays the identity of the perpetrator. Some people argue her claims and point out that wolves might fight each other too. This can happen especially adjacent packs and that they also attack the head. Another expert believe that a canine puncture that found in a wolf skull can be made by another wolf just as simply as lion. 

But, there is a record from a survey in Southern Yellowstone Ecosystem that a wolf killed by lion. This record is really surprising since, the last report shows that there are 5 lions killed by wolves.

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The lion that finally kills wolf for the first time in that survey is a female feral mountain lion. And adult female lion with three 3-month of old kittens. Lions weight more than double of wolves and they can jump and leap as nimbly as a rabbit. Lions are evolved to bring down formidable and huge prey. Even a lion can break a neck by biting.

So, based on the size and survey about lion vs wolf, in your opinion, who’s gonna win?