[Conor Friedersdorf]
Imagine that a Great White shark and a Bengal tiger are going to fight to the death. How many inches of water are needed for the shark to win?
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
32.5
18
two (in the tiger's lungs)
Insufficient data. How large is the Great White?
More important: how can we maximize the revenue stream derived from the half-time commercials?
The two apex predators should hardly end up in the same place, but given the conditions, I would say the shark needs at least 12-21 FEET of water to win at minimum. So that starts at 144 inches.
Any amount of water smaller than its (sharks) size would reduce mobility, and bengal tigers are able to nagivate water to some extent.
That answer or:
Count Chocula
(Out of the blue question, out of the blue answer)
I saw a play called Orange a couple years back that featured a reality TV show called "Animal Wars" awhile back as a background setting for the piece. This sounds like something close to the semi-finals between the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean.
The play centered around the rematch of this show's epic battle, "Monkey vs. Chicken." Presumably this was a smallish monkey, like a capuchin. I think that's a match with some possibilities, especially with the agile monkey vs the viscous chicken.
48-72 depending on the size of the shark. I'm figuring as long as it has enough water not to drown (or whatever the inverse is for water-breathers), it can make its way around well enough to land a solid bite on the tiger, which is about all it should take. The average great white is 2-3 times the size of even the largest tiger. I'm not even sure how the tiger is supposed to hurt a shark that isn't already in shallow enough water to (reverse) drown. Just eyeballing the shark, if a big one is 20 feet long, 4-6 feet should be enough to swim around in.
Is the shark named Chuck Norris?
0". Bengal tigers aren't even close to being in the same weight class as great whites (as Trevor points out). And sharks can live from several minutes up to several hours out of water. If the animals are contained in a small area or the tiger is actively attacking the shark then the shark will win. No water necessary. A clever tiger with room to move could just wander off and take a nap till the shark dies but that doesn't fit my definition of a "fight till the death."
I have to agree with Tony.
Sharks have very tough skin, so Im not sure that a tiger could penetrate it, whereas the great white could flop around until its maw was in vicinity of the tiger's flesh and take a large-sized bite.
I concur that the only shot the tiger has is to wait it out.