When a sloth bear took on a tiger in vicious fight at Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve – WATCH viral video

A sloth bear and a tiger got into a vicious fight at Maharashtra's Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur and the video of the rather thrilling encounter quickly went viral on social media. As per reports, the video was captured on Wednesday afternoon, by Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist at Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge, who was leading a safari with the tourists and came across the face-off between the two animals.

Kumar told a news portal that the two beasts possibly fought over the access to a nearby water body. The news portal quoted him as saying that the tiger, identified as 7-year-old Matkasur, a dominant male, had marked the water body called Jamun Bodi as his territory. Meanwhile, the female sloth bear, along with her cub, had approached Jamun Bodi in search of the water, when the tiger who was relaxing in the water, pounced on them. In a bid to defend her cub, the mother bear took on the tiger, while her offspring ran away to safety.
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In the video, initially, the tiger can be seen chasing away the sloth bears. However, mama bear turns around and attacks the big cat. What ensues is a tense face-off between the two as both try to dominate the fight. At one point, the tiger attempts to pin the bear down on the ground but the sloth bear desperately fights back, clawing and scratching him.
The video of the bitter bout between the animals ends with the sloth bear slowly walking off away from the tiger.
Here's a video of the intense encounter between the bear and a tiger: