Wootz Katar

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Roland_M

Hi Marius,
I have an official story from Indonesia from two guys which were sentenced to death and fight against a tiger with a Keris as a kind of last chance. They had Keris with broken tips and one guy was mauled after a few minutes but the other one was fighting for more than one and a half hour. He was able to kill the tiger by constantly attacking his ears and eyes.
The winner became a high member of the government.

Roland

Hello Roland,

Maybe true... but just maybe!

The numerous stories of the Indian Rajas killing single handedly a tiger were also official. Some of them, even officially recorded.

That said, it should be noted that
1. the guy in your story was fighting an Indonesian tiger, which was significantly smaller (about half the size) than a Bengali Tiger;
2. it was a captive tiger that most likely was raised in captivity and didn't even know how to hunt and didn't see humans as prey, and that might have been in significantly worse shape than a healthy free-roaming Indian tiger;
3. the fight was in a closed enclosure;
4. even if he killed the tiger, it might have been a lucky exception rather than the rule;
5. even with all points 1-4 taken into consideration, the statistical odds of winning a fight with a tiger was only 50% since the other prisoneer was killed.


PS: This doesn't mean it isn't possible to kill a tiger with a knife, and survive the fight... but it is extremely improbable.