Monster snake versus ginormous tiger?
Well this sounds interesting.
Who would win?!
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, the channel that likes to talk
about a whole host of topics from politics to science, to pop culture, to history and
beyond.
At the moment we’re on a weird trend of virtually fighting extinct super animals.
Why?
Just cause.
I am your host, Rebecca Felgate and TODAY we’re asking what if a sabre toothed tiger
fought a Titaniboa Snake.
As a Slytherin, I am forever team snek, but what about you?
Are you snake or are you tiger?
Let me know in the comments section down below.
Okay – The Sabre Tooth Tiger, or Smilodon, to use its official name, lived between 2.5
million years ago and 10 thousand years ago.
Fun fact, despite its name, it isn’t actually closely related to the toger.
Anyway, the old sabre tooth was, as its colloquial name suggests, a toothy ol chap with fangy
canine teeth that measured around 28 cms long, almost as long as a medium ruler stick.
The biggest of the sabretooths would come up to an average human males bicep – measuring
roughly 120 centimetres in height and weighing a heft 880lbs.
Honey was an adept killer known to take down large herbivores, including beasts like bison
and camels.
The Titanoboa lived 60 million years ago for roughly 2 million years.
When its fossils were found in Colombia it was confirmed to be the largest snake to have
ever existed.
This great snek was 12.8 metres long, so over ten times the height of the sabre tooth, and
it weighed around 2 thousand 500 lbs.
Right…so early on, we can see that the Boa is bigger and heavier than the tiger, although
so were bison and camel, so maybe the tiger had a trick up its stripy sleeve.
Both the Sabretooth and Titanoboa’s were thought to be apex predators – top of the
food chain – with no natural predators, so it is unlikely they would get into a fight.
Yah, yah, Rebecca, but what if they did though?!
Well the only common ground they possibly shared would be Colombia, the only known habitat
for the Titanoboa…although the closest the Sabretooth was known to be was Brazil.
Anyway, whatever….get em gighting.
While we suspect that the Sabretooth killed by holding its prey down with its forelimbs
and biting it, we aren’t too sure how the Titanoboa would kill, if it was anything like
the boa constrictor, it would likely have squeezed its prey to death and swallowed it
whole.
It wasn’t thought to be venomous, which is a bit of a shame for our snakey trump card,
but still….I think chappy still has the upper hand.
It is hard to tell exactly what would go down and how the fight would start, but let’s
say snakey baby is waiting in a watering hole – snakes are much better at hiding the tigers
and in water could be a perfect time to strike.
While the sabretooth could take a sizable bite of the titanoboa, it is much bigger and
thicker, so probably wouldn’t cause irreparable damage.
We know the main tactic for the Sabre was holding prey down with its paws, but here
that would be impossible, again, because he is too big.
We don’t know exactly how big the snakes fangs were, so I don’t know what the bite
back would be like, but being much bigger than the tiger and uncontained, I have no
doubt the boa could wrap itself around the sabre tooth, squeeze, and feast for days,
all the while recovering from any injuries sustained during combat.
Fun fact for you, though – this may be snakeys first taste of mammal as it is though they
ate fish!
Eitherway, in the death match in question, good old snake wins.
That was then and this is now, though.
Evolution has leveled the playing field and although the titanoboa would have obliterated
the sabretooth, these days tigers and boas do occasionally come to blows, and the tigers
tend to come out victorious, but they’re now bigger than Mr snek.
Well, we have had fun, haven’t we.
Who else do you want us to pit against one another ? Let me know in the comments section
down below!
Also let me know what other questions you might like me to answer?
Also, don’t forget to let me know whether you are team tiger or team snake and to leave
a thumbs up on this video!
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of LBQ – I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll
catch you in the next video, but until then stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop
questioning.