Because it’s not about being stronger, but how an encounter situation would occur.

First of all, I want you to understand that they are both apex predators, and in nature, apex predators will seek not to conflict with each other. But generally, one of them will be dominant. And the lion has a very simple reason for being the potentially dominant one in their ecological relationship.

Lions are social predators.

And indeed, this detail is enormously decisive for the ecological relationship, since tigers, in turn, are solitary animals. Of course, there are cases where an individual predator dominates a social animal, and of course when that happens the individual animal has a much larger size and the intimidation factor; but that is not the case here.

Approximate size comparison of Asiatic lion and Bengal tiger.

People tend to overestimate the size of the tiger relative to the lion, and underestimate the size of the Asiatic lion in particular. Of course, it varies from specimen to specimen, but overall, they are closer in size. Between the two animals, sociability is a factor that fulfills the rest of the attributes to scale a species as above.

But just to give you some insight into this, you have to understand how a tiger’s perspective works.

The tiger is not a bloodthirsty animal that will confront any animal in its native range because it is strong and skilled at hunting and will attack anything that threatens it. No, they are a survivor.

The tiger evaluates the type of prey that is the perfect combination of least risk but that is large enough to feed it for several days, in addition to satisfying its hunger. Hunting is also a risky task for the predator, and being an animal that seeks to avoid major injuries, it is more logical to avoid frequent hunting and to make the most of each time it needs to hunt.

This kind of perspective, the tiger also leads to its competition. Tigers are more likely to face predators that they understand are unlikely to fatally injure them, and avoid those that pose a high risk. The lion is the second case, and tigers would avoid fighting lions.

Tiger facing less dangerous competition.

And then you have to remember, there’s a closeness in size, which also leads to a close proximity in strength. And it’s simply unlikely that the tiger would be able to attack the lion without the lion fighting back, and the injuries from this fight can be particularly disabling in the long run for the tiger, and so the tiger would avoid attacking lions alone, unless of course they were very young and inexperienced. And this is because the tiger’s chances of winning without serious damage are absurdly higher.

And then there’s the sociability of lions, a pride of lions would subdue even a large tiger. Numbers in cases like this will always outweigh individual strength. Tigers understand that a fight of several against one is unfavorable, if attacking a lion alone was a guarantee of harmful long-term injuries, attacking several was a death sentence.

Lions would respect tigers, in fact, after all, a tiger can hurt them, you can see this prevention even with many leopard specimens.

Lions have a strong sense of self-preservation, as do tigers, but the tiger would be more serious competition than the leopards, this effectively forces one species to take the reins and dominate the other. This helps in long-term coexistence.

Lions would likely kill young tigers or tigresses in order to intimidate other potentially bothersome specimens, or even injure and harass larger ones in order to force them to avoid them, to give these specimens the impression that lions are a huge threat, and this forces the two animals, even if they live in the same region, to avoid encountering each other, as well as also avoiding the same type of prey.

Of course, you may disbelieve what I say, after all, this is speculation. But, my friend, this is most likely true. You can see a tiger from any population attacking a captive lion like there’s no tomorrow, and it still doesn’t reflect a natural interaction.

The two animals in captivity certainly do not even know what each other really is, they will not fear each other, and will attack each other. Specimens of both species in the wild will avoid fighting as much as possible, and if they do fight, it will be on terms where they have the advantage and the chance of defeat and incapacitating injury is greatly diminished.

If one day, the populations of these animals recover to the point where they coexist again, the scenario described would be the most likely to happen.

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ANATOMICALLY, THE BULKIER LION IS STRONGER THAN THE SLIMMER BUILD TIGER

The animal’s self-preservation instincts give better chance to survive by recognizing danger first and taking action to avoid it. When cats are in a same confinement, ranks are established by confrontations. Once each cat knows his rank, they will be more or less minor disputes, but a relative order is established. Serious, even deadly confrontations can be avoided when a weaker or smaller cat submits. Countless times when lions and tigers are in the same enclosure the alpha male in the group is normally a healthy male lion. A dominant animal will dominate the food and again generally the lions eat first. There are some exceptions and we have to dig farther to the lion’s physical condition. Nonetheless, generally speaking, the male lion dominates the tigers. We expect the strongest animal to be more self-assured, bolder and more territorial. Again, the male lion dominates in these subjects as well.

There are many examples of tigers submitting to a male lion

Tiger fear the lion

THE ANATOMY

LION AND TIGER DISSECTION FROM AN EXPECT ANATOMIST

Doctor Andrew Jackson Howe dissected lions and tigers from Autopsy of a Lion, The hospital surgeon Andrew Jackson Howe (1825-1892) was one of the most gifted comparative anatomists of his time. – The Eclectic Medical Journal, vol. 37, 1877 p.252.

“A distinguishing feature of the lion is an accumulation of weight and strength in its anterior parts, although the lion’s is covered with thick mass of hair and mane giving the beast a formidable appearance, there exists beneath this innocent hump a muscular development that surpasses the same parts in the tiger. The osseous and muscular structures of the lion’s head are superior to those of the tiger, and the fore-legs and paws possess greater strength than the tiger’s anterior extremities. The structures constituting the pelvic girdle of the tiger are perhaps larger and stronger than similar parts in the lion. In all other respect the average lion is more than a match for the average tiger.”

There is always a dominant cat, Rank is often establish with fights

Once the male lion established his authority, the submitting cat will retreat to avoid a confrontation or crouch down to show submission.

When serious fights occurred and keepers or trainers were not able to intervene in time.

Trainer Clyde Beatty

Trainer Dave Hoover

To make things clear.